the coming journey
made him quick to learn. The Emir himself admired his general
usefulness, and the sons of Musa paid him money for his services. As a
result of all this bustle there were fewer visits to the house of
Mitri, while the book and paint-box were perforce laid by.

The excitement of Elias grew with every day. He never tired of asking
whether all was ready, of reminding Iskender of the need of this or
that small comfort, and urging him to fix a date for their departure.
Indeed his eagerness became a visible disorder, and, seeing him mingle
freely with the other dragomans, Iskender went in hourly fear of
indiscretions. One noon when, after a spell of work in the hot
kitchen, he had rushed to the outer door to breath the air, he fell
upon a group of persons splendidly arrayed, who welcomed his appearance
with unfriendly glee. Yuhanna Mahbub, the bully, seized his arm, and
threatened him with his whip not altogether playfully.

"Confess the truth!" he commanded, with his cruel grin. "Thy journey
with the Emir is not for pastime. Thou hast a secret; it is useless to
deny it, for we know the fact from thy partner Elias. I, with others
of thy friends, resent this great preferment of Elias. Reveal thy
secret now immediately, and if it is of worth, I too will go with thee."

"What words are these?" Iskender cried out in extreme amazement. "A
secret! I possess a secret! It is some lying fable of that mad Elias!"

"That, Allah knows, is possible," put in a bystander. "Elias is the
very prince of fable-mongers."

Yuhanna still kept grinning in Iskender's face.

"Wilt thou swear by the Blessed Sacrament that thou knowest nothing of
the whereabouts of any treasure?"

"Art mad? How should I know of any treasure?"

"Swear by the Blessed Sacrament! Nought else will serve; and if
hereafter it should prove that thou art perjured, I will beat thy
filthy soul from out thy body."

"By the Blessed Sacrament I swear!" replied Iskender.

"That is well!" Yuhanna curled his long moustachios. "Then why does
Elias refuse every other engagement? It is not likely thy Emir will
pay him much."

"By the same pledge I know not! Ask the man himself!"

"Thou seest, 'Hanna, as I told thee, it is all a lie," laughed a
bystander, the same who had before spoken.

Iskender escaped from them, bearing the conscience of a perjured
wretch. He called Allah Most High to witness how the sin was forced on
him. It was some