towards him, laughing, waved his sword to the right, and the next moment
the two horses swerved round and darted down a narrow way little wider
than a court, and tore on in obedience to the urging from their riders'
heels, chased too now by fresh pursuers, whose yells rang out as if they
were a vast pack of human hounds--as indeed they were, and as
bloodthirsty; but they were at this disadvantage: everything about them
was new, while to the fugitives, especially to one, the maze of streets
was familiar, and their horses were quite at home.

So much so was this the case that after tearing along two or three
streets, at every corner of which as they swung round it seemed as if
they would come down upon their flanks, the beautiful creatures snorted
as they tore on with expanded nostrils and streaming manes and tails,
galloping with stretched-out necks as if they knew their goal. It was
so, for at the end of a few minutes' more wild dash they bounded across
a wide way familiar to Frank, whose heart leaped as the swift animals
dashed into an open court, plunging a group of mounted and foot men into
a frantic state of excitement as the horses stopped by one impulse, and
the young Emir shouted his war-cry, waving his sword above his head and
pointing to his pursuers, who came streaming in through the open gate.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

"BURNING."

The wandering tribes of the desert, who exist by their sword and spear,
live the life of the wild beast of prey whose eyes are ever on the look
out for the furtive blow or stroke that shall lay them low. Their
swords are ever ready; their spears are constantly in hand; while as an
additional safeguard the majority of them carry a dagger bound to the
left wrist. Danger is to them always lurking and tracking their steps
as closely as their shadow. It is the shadow of their existence, so
that a warning cry, the wave of sword or spear by a flying man, is taken
as an alarm at once; and hence it was that the dash into their midst of
two mounted men, one of whom they knew as the son of a friendly Emir,
and the sight of the pursuers was enough. Before the flying horses were
checked, a score of mounted spearmen were to the front to screen them,
and in answer to a warning cry a couple of score more were untethering
their horses; others were mounting, and a stream of foot, spear and
shield armed, came running out of the houses, huts, and tents which
surrounded the court. And now a sl