ou remembered the far away."

"How could I forget the man who watched by me in his tent when I was
sick unto death, and who rejoiced over me when I was brought back to
life? I looked back upon you as a brother and friend, and now I have
come; but this must not be only a work of friendship. You and your
young men must be paid, and paid well, for all their risks, for we do
not come as poor suppliants. I and my friends are fairly rich, and will
gladly spend money over this adventure."

"Yes, money is as water that we fling upon the sand at such a time as
this," said the Sheikh. "And you are rich. Well, so are we. Our life
is simple; we live as we have always lived, in tents, and our riches are
in our flocks and herds, our camels and our horses. We have our pride
as you have, even if we do work for the rich English for the piastres
they pay. But in such a work as this for our wise brother and friend,
take money? No; we go to help our brother. It is for love."

"But Sheikh--" began Frank.

"Let your young brother be silent, Excellency; the bargain is made, and
we must have much thought about how this is to be done. As you said,
the fight must be with cunning; much wisdom must be brought to bear. We
must try and find out what the Khalifa desires most. We must go as
merchants, and you will need your piastres to buy enough for a little
caravan of such things as will be welcome in the enemy's camp. Powder
for the guns of his people for certain he will want. Strong wines and
waters too, for he, like those of his kind, loves to break the prophet's
laws. I will leave you now to sleep and muse upon all this. Mayhap you
will find some plan or scheme, as you English call it, that will be
better than mine; but something of this sort it must be, and we will
go."

"Yes," said Frank eagerly, "and we will go."

The Sheikh shook his head slowly.

"No," he said, "this is no work for such as you. The task is for me and
mine. Good-night."

He turned, and seemed to fade into the darkness at once, just as the
doctor, who had been waiting impatiently upon the seat, strode up.

"Well," he said, "have you secured your man?"

"Yes," replied the professor; "but there is a battle yet to fight. He
does not know our plans."

CHAPTER SIX.

THE STARTING POINT.

What with the excitement and the change, as it were, into another life
such as he had only read of in books, Frank Frere's was a very poor
night's rest, so