is true I
should have been a dead man had your blade been opened, and your
movement was so rapid that I could not have avoided it."

"No, because you were not accustomed to it. Had you been an English
boxer you would have leapt back as quickly as I leapt forward. I should
have failed to grasp your wrist, and should in that case have leapt back
again to my former position, for had I remained thus I should have been
at your mercy. Had I succeeded in doing so before you struck me, we
should have been as we began, and I should have tried some other trick.
Certainly as long as I stood with my left arm extended and my knife
pointed towards you, you could not have closed with me--for I am much
quicker on my feet from the training that I have received--and I could
have got back more quickly than your knife could fall, and even if the
blades fell at the same moment you would but gash my shoulder, whereas I
should pierce you at a vital point.

"It is with this as with other matters. You have been trained from
childhood to sit your horse. You can stoop over while you are galloping
at full speed and pick up a stone from the sand. You can twirl your
lance round your head and throw it into the air, and catch it as it
descends while going at full speed. You can do things that no untrained
Englishman could do. So is it with me. I have learned boxing from the
best masters in England, I have practised daily for two years and a
half, and I have gained a quickness that could not be imitated by one
who has not had such teaching and practice."

"It is true," the sheik said. "But it is not the less wonderful in our
eyes that, though knowing the use of our weapons, we should be but as
children in your hands when thus fighting on foot. I wonder no longer
that you should so easily have conquered this man. What say you, my
brothers?"

An exclamation of assent broke from the Arabs, who, in spite of Edgar's
explanation, henceforth regarded him with an almost superstitious
respect. As soon as the troop had arrived, Edgar had gone to see his
horse, which, as well as that of Sidi, the sheik had brought with him.
It had whinnied with pleasure as he came up to it, and he stood patting
it for some time, and giving it some dates. He now went over to it
again, and on his return asked the chief:

"Were you thinking of riding that splendid horse of yours?"

"Certainly I was," he replied, in a tone of surprise.

"I do not mean to take mine," Edgar sa