ey faced Rupert, who
was leaning on his spear. "There!" he shouted. "Where are the eyes you
boast of? You say that anyone could in a moment detect a white man
through his disguises. What! are you then blind or idiots that you do
not see that this is a white man standing here?" The Arabs stood
motionless, wondering and incredulous, while the chief broke into a
triumphant laugh at his own superior sagacity.

"Is he white?" one of the men asked, turning to the major.

"Yes, this is the officer who is to travel with you."

"What is it all about, major?" Rupert asked as the three natives
proceeded to walk round him and examine him from every point.

"The sheik was declaiming against the obstinacy of his followers. He
really wants to take you, and was in vain trying to persuade his men
that such clever people as the whites could disguise themselves so that
they would not be known. The two men protested against the risk, and
maintained that anyone could tell a white from a native a mile off.
Really the sheik did not suspect you in the slightest, but I thought it
was well to let him have a triumph over his followers, and so as he was
going on I gave a little nod towards you and he caught it at once; but I
could see at first he thought he was mistaken, and while the others were
having their say I nodded to him and said, 'Yes it is he.'"

With many interjections: "It is wonderful! Can such things be! Eyes have
never seen it!" the three Arabs had continued to gaze at Rupert while
the officer was speaking.

"It is a white man," the sheik said at last; "there is more flesh on his
limbs than on those of a young Arab. But who ever saw such hair on a
white man; by what miracle did it grow thus?"

"It is what is called a wig," Major Kitchener explained. "It was made
for him at Cairo; he can take it off and on. Take it off, Clinton."

Rupert pulled off his wig and stood before them in his closely-cropped
head. The natives made a step or two backwards in astonishment and awe.

"The whites are great people," the sheik said; "they can turn a white
man into a black. They can put an Arab's hair on to their heads, so that
they can take it on and off like a turban. It is well, my lord, we will
take the young officer with us; but he must remember that though when he
is standing still he may look so like an Arab that no eyes could detect
him, it is the movements and the ways and the tongue, and not the skin
and hair only, that make a man