eir voices; receive their speeches, their songs, or the
melodies of instruments impressed on wax, to reproduce whenever we
please; these and scores of other such scientific marvels are but
everyday matters of business, common trifles, though they dwarf many of
the magic legends of the Arabian Nights.

Consequently the Hakim's black slave was greeted with profound reverence
by the Emir's bodyguard as he rode out, stern and thoughtful, upon the
mission which he felt to be the greatest of his life, and barely noted
that his beautiful horse ambled along as if proud of this rider in the
flowing white robes, and whose richly ornamented sword beat softly upon
its flank.

Frank gave one glance back, however, to see that the Sheikh's camel was
pacing along a few yards behind, the thick, long, scarlet horsetail
plume waving beneath the ungainly animal's neck, while the seven
horsemen rode, fiercely important, a few yards behind the Sheikh, each
with his round bossed target and gleaming spears.

For one moment Frank thought of self, and how strange it all was that
he, the young Englishman, accustomed to London and its ways, the student
of chemistry, full of experimental lore, should be riding there in
disguise, the Hakim's slave and assistant--the favourite of a powerful
Baggara Emir and his son--riding through the teeming crowds of that hive
of horror, bloodshed, and misery, and those familiar with his appearance
making way at once. It was all like a dream for a few moments, or as if
he were reading with strong imagination some romantic work descriptive
of a scene in the south and east. Then it was all real again--horribly
real--and he rode gently on, thinking of the part he had to play, and
wondering wildly whether he would have the nerve to go through all he
had mentally planned, and whether if he were successful in getting alone
with his brother, Harry would bear the announcement of there being help
at hand.

"It all depends on me," thought the adventurer, as he rode on, stern,
and gazing straight before him, hardly conscious of the crowd through
which he passed, or the whispers of the people who recognised the
Hakim's follower; for he was busy working out his plans and picturing
the scene in which he was to play that critical part.

It might be that the lives of all would be at stake if he failed in
carrying out what he had devised, and no wonder that his face grew more
set, his eyes darker with thought, till, as it se