head meaningly. "May Allah heal him! The Lord forbid that we
should plunder such a one, or detain him beyond his pleasure. All such
are favoured of Allah! Be our guests from now."

And he gave his orders for a feast to be prepared.

All the old men fell to petting and caressing the Emir, grieving to
think that one so young and comely was spoilt for the commerce of life
by a deranged intelligence. Iskender, too, they treated as a friend.
Their original intention, they confessed, had been to hold his Honour
up to ransom; but now they offered gifts instead of claiming them.

Iskender, the moment he could do so with politeness, went out and
searched the camp till he regained his sketch-book. Mahmud, the
muleteer, called to him from the mouth of a tent where he was feasting
as the guest of a tall Bedawi. He proclaimed the safety of their lives
a miracle, attributable solely to the fact that he himself had not
ceased to assert the Unity of God from the moment he was taken captive
till men came and blessed him. All gave praise to Allah.

CHAPTER XXII

In the morning, Iskender's face had swollen where his lord had whipped
it, half-closing one of the eyes. The chiefs of the Arabs cried out at
sight of it and asked to know the cause of its disfigurement when their
guests prepared to set forth in the morning under the escort of two
armed and mounted tribesmen. He put them off with the story of a fall
from his horse. The Frank glanced but once at his handiwork; and then
looked down and bit his lip, contrition and annoyance at war in his
demeanour. After riding long in gloomy silence, he inquired:

"What made them change?"

Iskender, wishing to take all the credit of the deliverance to himself,
and at the same time to avoid mention of Wady 'l Muluk, replied:

"I told them you are mad."

"You told them what?" exclaimed the Emir from frozen heights of anger.

"That you are mad, sir."

A storm of abuse, couched in language he had never heard among the
missionaries, stupefied Iskender, who had expected compliments upon his
cleverness.

"You dared to tell them I was mad." The Emir seemed thunderstruck. He
presently announced his resolve to return at once to captivity; but
Iskender with a courage unexpected by himself, assured him that would
be to prove his madness. The palpable truth of this contention angered
the Frank, like a blow. He flushed crimson and turned upon Iskender
with whip raised.

"Lea