e who led him astray, who first suggested to him a life of
fraud and peculation." The missionary looked straight into Abdullah's
eyes with the sternness of a righteous judge. "It is of no use to deny
your own part in it, for I have spoken with the mother of the wretched
lad, and she has told me how you were the first to propose that he
should attach himself to this young English visitor with a view to
making money, how you egged him on and taught him all the tricks of the
trade. Are you not ashamed of yourself, an old man, with death close
before you? But all you natives are alike conscienceless, blind to the
truth as if a curse from God was on you. Be sure that I, for one, am
not blind to your guilt in this affair, and that I shall mention it to
Cook's agent at the first opportunity. You have led the boy to
renounce his faith, and now to crime! I hope you are proud of your
handiwork! Good-day!"

Abdullah found not a word. He stood staring at his feet, stunned and
trembling. The whole structure of his pride caved in on him. He, the
Sheykh of the Dragomans, the respectable of respectables, made so by
especial favour of the Blessed Virgin, to hear such words from one of
those very English whose esteem upheld him! He soiled his face with
mud and camel's dung and sat in his house, lamenting, refusing every
comfort that his wife or the sympathising neighbours could devise to
offer. Some two hours after noon there came a storm with terrifying
flashes. The thunder shook the house, the solid earth. At one moment
the gnarled and twisted branches of the fig-tree were seen black
against a sharp illumination, the next smoke-grey and weird amid the
inky gloom. They seemed like snakes approaching stealthily, and then
like loathsome arms intent to seize his soul. The storm gave place to
steady rain; the world was lightened somewhat, but without relief.
Abdullah, though a prey to all the horrors, sat there quite still till
evening, when suddenly the force of life returned to him. He rushed
out to the nearest tavern, called for arac, and drank heavily. The
honour which had resulted from his vision now seemed torn from him; and
since She withdrew her favour, he was free to break his vow. That
night, returning home, he snatched the sacred picture from its shelf
and trod it under foot, to his wife's terror.

CHAPTER XX

Southward and eastward rode Iskender with his loved Emir. Crags
succeeded crags; the sky wa