re more zealous, more earnest, more
deeply possessed by our faith than you, his own fellow-believers."

"I know it."

"And when I told him that I had given orders that the desk for the reader
of the Koran in our new mosque should be discarded, because when he
stepped up to it he was uplifted above the other worshippers, the weary
Mukaukas was quite agitated with satisfaction and uttered a loud cry of
approbation. We Moslems--for that was what my commands implied--must all
be equal in the presence of God, the Eternal, the Almighty, the
All-merciful; their leader in prayer must not be raised above them, even
by a head; the teaching of the Prophet points the road to Paradise, to
all alike, we need no earthly guide to show us the way. It is our faith,
our righteousness, our good deeds that open or close the gates of heaven;
not a key in the hand of a priest. When you are one of us, no Benjamin
can embitter your happiness on earth, no Patriarch can abrogate your
claims and your father's to eternal bliss. You have chosen well, boy!
Your hand, my convert to the true faith!"

And he held out his hand to Orion with glad excitement. But the young man
did not take it; he drew back a little and said rather uneasily:

"Do not misunderstand me, great Captain. Here is my hand, and I can know
no greater honor than that of grasping yours, of wielding my sword under
your command, of wearing it out in your service and in that of my lord
the Khaliff; but I cannot be untrue to my faith."

"Then be crushed by Benjamin--you and all your people!" cried Armu,
disappointed and angry. He waved his hand with a gesture of disgust and
dismissal, and then turned to the Vekeel with a shrug, to answer the
man's scornful exclamation.

Orion looked at them in dumb indecision; but he quickly collected
himself, and said in a tone of modest but urgent entreaty:

"Nay; hear me and do not reject my petition. It could only be to my
advantage to go over to you; and yet I can resist so great a temptation;
but for that very reason I shall keep faith with you as I do to my
religion."

"Until the priests compel you to break it," interrupted the Arab roughly.

"No, no!" cried Orion. "I know that Benjamin is my foe; but I have lost a
beloved parent, and I believe in a meeting beyond the grave."

"So do I," replied the Moslem. "And there is but one Paradise and one
Hell, as there is but one God."

"What gives you this conviction?"

"My faith."

"Then f