on. "They jumped from
their boat, and reached me just as I was sinking, and have borne me up.
For my sake you must spare their lives."

Mahmud frowned. He dismounted and went up to his wife.

"Have I not sworn, Fatma," he said, "that I would slay every unbeliever
who falls into my hands? How, then, can I spare even one who has saved
your life?"

"Others have been spared who have been of service, my lord," she said.
"There are Greeks and Egyptians who work your guns, and they were
spared because they were useful. There is Neufeld, who lives under the
protection of the Khalifa. Surely these men have done far more to
deserve, not only life, but honour at your hands. They risked their
lives to save mine. What follower of the Prophet could do more? They
could not have known who I was, a woman they saw drowning. Are there
any among the bravest of the tribes who would have done the same?"

"I have sworn an oath," Mahmud said, gloomily.

"But you have not sworn to slay instantly. You can keep them, at least,
until you can take them before the Khalifa, and say to him:

"'Father, I have sworn to kill unbelievers, but these men have saved
Fatma's life; and I pray you to absolve me from the oath, or order them
to be taken from me, and then do you yourself pardon them and set them
free for the service that they have rendered me.'

"If he refuses, if these men are killed, I also swear that, as my life
is due to them, I myself will perish by my own hands, if they die for
saving it!"

"It needs not that, Fatma. You think that I am ungrateful, that I do
not feel that these men have acted nobly, thus to risk their lives to
save a strange woman whose face they have never seen. It is my oath
that lies heavily upon me. I have never been false to an oath."

"Nor need you be now," Fatma said earnestly. "You swore to slay any
unbeliever that fell into your hands. This man has not fallen into your
hands. I have a previous claim to him. He is under my protection. I
cover him with my robe"--and she swept a portion of her garment round
Gregory--"and as long as he is under it he is, according to tribal
laws, safe even from the vengeance of my husband!

"As to the other, he is not an unbeliever. Your oath concerns him not.
Him you can honour and reward, according to the value you place upon my
life."

The Arab's face cleared.

"Truly you have discovered a way out of it, Fatma, at any rate for the
present."

He turned to Gregory for