illage,' was my answer; and again we
fell to picturing the strange event.

At length we heard the barking of a dog in the far distance, and gave
praise to Allah. A half-hour later we saw lights ahead of us. But that
did not mean that the village was awake, Rashid explained to me, for
among the people of that country 'to sleep without a light' is to be
destitute. A little later, Rashid hammered at a door, while savage
dogs bayed round us, making rushes at his heels.

'Awake, O sons of honour!' was his cry. 'A great calamity!' And, when
the door was opened, he detailed the story of an awful fight, in which
both parties of belligerents had been exterminated. 'They are torn
limb from limb. We saw the relics,' he explained. 'If you have any
doubt, question my lord who is out here behind me--a great one of the
English, famed for his veracity.'

And I was ready to confirm each word he said.

In a very little while that village was astir.

It was the seat of a mudir who had two soldiers at his beck and call.
The great man was aroused from sleep; he questioned us, and, as the
result of the inquiry, sent the soldiers with us to survey the
battlefield. A crowd of peasants, armed with quarter-staves and
carrying lanterns, came with the party out of curiosity. Our horses
having had enough of travel, we went back on foot amid the noisy
crowd, who questioned us incessantly about the strange event. The
murmur of our going filled the wood and echoed from the rocks above.
By the time we reached the place where we had seen the human limbs,
the dawn was up, to make our lanterns useless.

Rashid and I were certain of the spot. We came upon it with a thrill
of apprehension.

But there was nothing there.

'I seek refuge in Allah!' gasped Rashid in pious awe. 'I swear by my
salvation it was here we saw them. The name of God be round about us!
It is devilry.'

Our escort was divided in opinion, some thinking we had been indeed
the sport of devils, others that we lied. But someone sniffed and
said:

'There is a smell of death.'

There was no doubt about the smell at any rate. Then one of the
mudir's two soldiers, searching in the brushwood, cried: 'I have the
remnant of an arm.'

And then an old man of the village smote his leg and cried:

'O my friends, I see it! Here is neither lies nor devilry.'

Laughing, he seized me by the arm and bade me come with him. We went a
little way into the wood, and there he showed me three Dru