morning
with the avowed intention of making a long day's march.

These tidings sent Elias raging mad. They were fleeing towards the
valley full of gold, of which Iskender, alone of all men, knew the
whereabouts; and he, Elias, their predestined chief, was left behind!
His fiery spirit craved to mount at once and gallop day and night till
he rejoined those treasure-seekers; but the frailty of his horse
precluded any such transports, and the snail-like pace of his adherents
bound him down. At present he was obliged to wait for Aflatun and
Faris and the baggage animals, while conscious of the fugitives
receding rapidly, sucked in irresistibly to a whirlpool of living
light, his mind's image of the object of desire.

Having procured some barley and chopped straw for his horse, he left
the beast in charge of some of the villagers, and climbed alone to the
summit of a rock hard by, which commanded the plain. His retinue
appeared, a great way off, mere dots upon a certain cornfield. The sun
was high when he first descried them; it had touched the sea before
they came in hail.

"Make haste, accursed sluggards! Yallah! Onward! They fly before us!
We must march all night," he cried in anguish.

But they said:

"Wait a little! All the beasts are tired. We will not march through
the night. In truth we are minded to have done with this mad business,
which is the same as hunting the shadow of a flying bird. Allah alone
knows whether we shall catch those people; but we ourselves are able to
perceive that we are tired and hungry."

"May Allah shorten your days!" roared Elias furiously. "Would you fail
me now and betray me, O treacherous dogs?"

They still refused to travel through the night; and when he persisted
in requiring it of them, took umbrage, and vowed that they would leave
him then and there. For hours he remonstrated with them, but they only
ate and drank and smoked, then slept, unheeding. He lay down by their
side, but could not sleep.

At the first breath of dawn they were still snoring, when Elias rose,
prepared his horse, and rode away. After all he felt well rid of such
unsoulful hogs. He could travel much more quickly by himself; and the
fewer reached the Valley of the Kings the better, for some are thieves,
and gold corrupts true men. So he rode on, pushing his mount to the
utmost, in and out among the stony hills, inquiring at every village
and of all he met in the way for tidings of the Fr