The principal thing, father, that has happened to us is, that we again
met the two men who attacked me at Alexandria, and were beaten and
turned out of the city, and as it happened then, I should have lost my
life had it not been for my brother."

"Tell me about it," the sheik said, his face hardening and his fingers
playing with the hilt of the long knife in his sash.

Sidi related the whole adventure.

The sheik stood stroking his beard gravely as Sidi spoke. His eyes
turned from his son to Edgar.

"Bishmillah!" he exclaimed, when the story was finished, "Allah must
have sent you to be Sidi's protector. Without doubt, he would have lost
his life had he been alone. Truly it is a wonderful thing this English
science that you possess, and that enables you, though but a lad, to
knock down strong men, and although unused to a knife, to slay ruffians
accustomed to it from their childhood, with their own weapons. More than
ever am I beholden to you, Edgar. Twice have you saved my son's life.
Had you been alone, these men would not have recognized you, and it was
but because he was attacked that, as on the last occasion, you joined in
the fray. Show me, I beg you, how you slew this man."

"It was simple, sheik. Had I fought him in his own fashion he would, I
have no doubt, have killed me. But my method was as new to him as his
would have been to me. Will you draw your dagger and advance at me as if
going to strike? Now, if I have my knife in my right hand also, you
know what to do; you would try to grasp my wrist with your left hand. I
should try to grasp yours in the same way. We should struggle, but with
your superior strength you would soon wrench your right hand free, and
strike me down. Now, you see, I take my closed knife in my left hand,
pointing it straight towards you, with my left foot forward; that is the
position in which we stand when we use our fists. You, like that
Maltese, are puzzled, and stand, as he did, for a moment indecisive;
that would have been fatal to you. As, you see, I leap forward, changing
my advanced foot as I do so, catch your wrist, and pull your arm with a
sudden jerk towards me, and at the same moment strike you under the arm
with my left hand."

An exclamation of wonder broke from the Arabs standing round listening
to the conversation, as with lightning speed Edgar repeated the
manoeuvre that had been fatal to the Maltese.

"Bishmillah," the chief ejaculated, "but it is wonderful! It