no English policeman would win upon this mad fool of a
sheikh--may the vultures tear his heart out while he is still alive--to
treat him like a son. He must be one of the parties interested in the
last will. What wretched luck that I did not meet him in a fair way,
and make a proper agreement with him! But it is too late for that now.
If I could only be revenged upon him, upon all of them--sheikh,
torturer, mocking demons, and all! Ugh, how sore I am! If it were but
all over! But I fear they may torment me further. I had almost sooner
they took my head off at once rather than put me to more of that agony.
But no; I hope they won't do that either. There is a remedy for every
evil but death." With these reflections, fears, and impotent rages
tormenting him, Daireh reached his house, and from a box, which
contained what he had of most value, produced the required documents
which had cost Harry Forsyth so much anxiety, toil, and suffering to
come at. He was strongly tempted to destroy them, and so glean some
little vengeance; but the certainty of perishing in fearful pain if he
did so deterred him, and when he was brought back, he delivered them to
the sheikh, wrapped in the oilskin in which he had carried them about
him until he had a fixed residence where he could deposit them in
tolerable security.

"Are these the right wills?" asked the Sheikh Burrachee, handing them to
Harry.

"I think so," replied the latter, as he looked them over and examined
the signatures; "indeed, I feel certain that they are."

"Then," said the sheikh, "since after all it was but infidels, and not
true believers, that this rascal robbed, the justice of the case will
perhaps be met by fifty lashes of the courbash, those he has already
received being allowed to count. Dog!" he added, indignantly, as
Daireh, flinging himself on the ground, wallowed, gasping and crying for
mercy, "tempt me not, if you are wise, to treat you according to your
deserts, but know that you are treated with extreme leniency."

And so saying he rose and withdrew to the inner garden court, whither
his nephew gladly followed him, and here they refreshed themselves with
pipes and coffee.

But the screams of the miserable felon told with what energy Hassan was
performing his duty, and Harry thought the punishment would never be
over. If it seemed long to him, you may be certain Daireh thought it an
age, and indeed he believed that mortal endurance had reached