ugh I waited a few moments I saw no further signs of a
human being.

I returned to Pharaoh Nanjulian and woke him up. He was sound asleep
when I touched him, but started to his feet as soon as I laid my hand on
his shoulder.

"What is it, master?" he asked, scanning my face narrowly, as if he saw
some sign of disturbance there. "You look alarmed."

"I have seen a man watching us."

"What kind of a man? Where has he gone?"

"Nay, that I know not. When I opened my eyes just now they fell full
upon him. He stood behind that rock, peering over it at me. I saw naught
of him but his head, and that was hidden in a black cowl with eye-slits,
through which his eyes gleamed like fire."

Pharaoh shook his head.

"'Tis a Familiar," said he. "One of those accursed fanatics, master,
that dog and pry after honest men like sleuth-hounds, and leave them not
until the flame licks their bodies. This is bad news, i' faith. Which
way went he?"

I told him that I thought I had seen a black robe vanishing among the
trees below, but could not be certain. At that he seized his staff and
went down the slope himself, examining all the likely places in which a
man might have concealed himself. But he found naught, and so came back
to me, shaking his head.

"You are sure you were not dreaming?" he asked. "Men dream of strange
things when hunger is on them."

"How could I dream of what I never saw in my life?" said I.

"You mean the black hood, master? Alas! I have seen it, and so has many
a good man, to his sorrow. Those accursed fanatics! They creep about in
God's blessed sunlight like reptiles. You should see them walk the
streets. Close to the walls they go, their hands meekly folded, their
cowled heads bent to the ground, and yet their eyes note everything. God
is on their lips--yea, but the devil is in their hearts."

"What shall we do, Pharaoh?" I asked him.

"Marry, all we can do is to leave this spot and push forward up the
mountains. There are yet two hours of daylight, but we must chance that.
If we can escape this fellow until darkness sets in, we may yet give him
the slip altogether."

So we set out once more, our bodies refreshed by our long sleep, but the
hunger still fiercely gnawing within us. We were driven to plucking the
prickly pears again, troublesome as was the peeling of them, for we
could eat them as we walked, whereas if we had gone a-hunting for wild
turkeys or rabbits we should have had to light a fire,