em all, to crush this completely, and then to
take his old allies one by one, if they would not guarantee to give up
their raids on peaceful tribes. His influence with the natives was such
that he felt certain it was possible to lead them into action against
their dreaded foes, the Arabs, if he was once able to give them
confidence. Everything turned out as he had hoped.

The great state which had aimed at the hegemony of the whole district
was defeated; and Alec, with the method habitual to him, set about
organising each strip of territory which was reclaimed from barbarism.
He was able to hold in check the emirs who had fought with him, and a
sharp lesson given to one who had broken faith with him, struck terror
in the others. The land was regaining its old security. Alec trusted
that in five years a man would be able to travel from end to end of it
as safely as in England. But suddenly everything he had achieved was
undone. As sometimes happens in countries of small civilisation, a
leader arose from among the Arabs. None knew from where he sprang, and
it was said that he had been a camel driver. He was called Mohammed the
Lame, because a leg badly set after a fracture had left him halting, and
he was a shrewd man, far-seeing, ruthless, and ambitious. With a few
companions as desperate as himself, he attacked the capital of a small
state in the North which was distracted by the death of its ruler,
seized it, and proclaimed himself king.

In a year he had brought under his sway all those shadowy lands which
border upon Abyssinia, and was leading a great rabble, mad with the lust
of conquest, fanatic with hatred of the Christian, upon the South.
Consternation reigned among the tribes to whom MacKenzie was the only
hope of salvation. He pointed out to the Arabs who had accepted his
influence, that their safety, as well as his, lay in resistance to the
Lame One; but the war cry of the Prophet prevailed against the call of
reason, and he found that they were against him to a man. His native
allies were faithful, with the fidelity of despair, and these he brought
up against the enemy. A pitched battle was fought, but the issue was
undecided. The losses were great on both sides, and Alec was himself
badly wounded.

Fortunately the wet season was approaching, and Mohammed the Lame, with
a wholesome respect for the white man who for the moment, at least, had
checked his onward course, withdrew to the Northern regions where h