e laughter from his lips in an instant. "Wait no
longer, O Ben Aboo," he cried, "but look upon him now, and know that
what you have done is an unclean thing, and you shall be childless and
die!"

Then Ben Aboo's passion mastered him. He rose to his feet in his anger,
and cried, "Prophet, you have destroyed yourself. Listen to me! The
turbulent dogs you plead for shall lie in their prison until they perish
of hunger and rot of their sores. By the beard of my father, I swear
it!"

Mohammed did not flinch. Throwing back his head, he answered, "If I am
a prophet, O Ben Aboo hear me prophesy. Before that which you say shall
come to pass, both you and your father's house will be destroyed. Never
yet did a tyrant go happily out of the world, and you shall go out of it
like a dog."

Then Katrina also rose to her feet, and, calling to a group of
barefooted Arab soldiers that stood near, she cried, "Take him! He will
escape!"

But the soldiers did not move, and Ben Aboo fell back on his seat, and
Mohammed, fearing nothing, spoke again.

"In a vision of last night I saw you, O Ben Aboo and for the contempt
you had cast upon our holy laws, and for the destruction you had wrought
on our poor people, the sword of vengeance had fallen upon you. And
within this very court, and on that very spot where your feet now rest,
your whole body did lie; and that woman beside you lay over you wailing
and your blood was on her face and on her hands, and only she was with
you, for all else had forsaken you--all save one, and that was your
enemy, and he had come to see you with his eyes, and to rejoice over you
with his heart, because you were fallen and dead."

Then, in the creeping of his terror, Ben Aboo rose up again and reeled
backward and his eyes were fixed steadfastly downward at his feet where
the eyes of Mohammed had rested. It was almost as if he saw the awful
thing of which Mohammed had spoken, so strong was the power of the
vision upon him.

But recovering himself quickly, he cried, "Away! In the name of God,
away!"

"I will go," said Mohammed; "and beware what you do while I am gone."

"Do you threaten me?" cried Ben Aboo. "Will you go to the Sultan? Will
you appeal to Abd er-Rahman?"

"No, Ben Aboo; but to God."

So saying, Mohammed of Mequinez strode out of the place, for no man
hindered him. Then Ben Aboo sank back on to his seat as one that was
speechless, and nothing had the crimson on his body availed him, or the