. He will have to keep a watch always over
himself and be ever careful and prudent, for were he discovered it would
cost him his life, and would go hard with us also for bringing him as a
spy into the land."

"We know that, sheik," Major Kitchener said; "and all that has, you
know, been considered in the handsome terms we have offered you."

"If he spoke the language as you do, my lord, it would be easy."

"It will not be long before he does so, sheik; you will see that he
speaks with a fair accent already. Just suppose that you are the sheik
of a village and that he has come in to get something. Now, Clinton,
begin with the usual Arabic salutations."

Rupert at once addressed the sheik, and the usual ceremonial
salutations which precede all conversation were exchanged between them.

"I have wandered from my camp," Rupert went on; "my camel has travelled
far, and I am hungry and athirst. I would buy meal and dates for my
further journey, and a feed of grain for the camel," he continued, with
a dozen other sentences that he had committed to heart and gone over
scores of times with Ibrahim.

The sheik nodded his approval. "It is good," he said. "For a time, as
you have said, he will not talk, but will go as an afflicted one who has
lost his speech, but even now he could pass through a village with us
without exciting suspicion. We will take him. What say you?" he asked
his followers, who replied together, "We will take him."

Then there was a long discussion in Arabic between the sheik and Major
Kitchener. "He has seen your camels," the major said turning to Rupert,
"and wants them thrown into the bargain when it is all over. I have told
him that this is quite out of the question. The terms I have already
agreed upon are ten times as high as he could earn with his camels in
any other way; besides it is, as I pointed out to him, probable that you
and your brother may have to ride away alone on the camels. But I have
said that if you should arrive together at any port or place where the
sum agreed upon can be paid to him, and if you are thoroughly satisfied
with the way in which you have been treated, you will let him have them,
deducting from the amount to be paid half the sum that you have just
given for them, and as you paid for them in goods that will really be
about the price they cost you."

"That will be an excellent arrangement," Rupert said; "the hope of
getting the camels at the end of the journey will cer