we get our living by our
skill in music."

"Truly you Christians love each other well," said the officer. "Accept
the Koran and you will not be treated thus. But why do you come to
Egypt?"

"Sir, we heard that it is a rich land where the people love music, and
have come hoping to earn some money here that we may put by to live on.
Send us not away, sir; we have a little offering to make. Niece Hilda,
where is the gold piece I gave you? Offer it to this lord."

"Nay, nay," said the officer. "Shall I take bread out of the mouth of
the poor? Clerk," he added in Arabic to a man who was with him, "make
out a writing giving leave to these two to land and to ply their
business anywhere in Egypt without question or hindrance, and bring it
to me to seal. Farewell, musicians. I fear you will find money scarce in
Egypt, for the land has been stricken with a famine. Yet go and prosper
in the name of God, and may He turn your hearts to the true faith."

Thus it came about that through the good mind of this Moslem, whose
name, as I learned when we met again, was Yusuf, our feet were lifted
over many stumbling-blocks. Thus it seems that by virtue of his office
he had power to prevent the entry into the land of such folk as we
seemed to be, which power, if they were Christians, was almost always
put in force. Yet because he had seen the captain appear to illtreat me,
or because, being a soldier himself, he guessed that I was of the same
trade, whatever tale it might please me to tell, this rule was not
enforced. Moreover, the writing which he gave me enabled me to go where
we wished in Egypt without let or hindrance. Whenever we were stopped
or threatened, which happened to us several times, it was enough if we
presented it to the nearest person in authority who could read, after
which we were allowed to pass upon our way unhindered.

Before we left the ship I had a last conversation with the captain,
Menas, telling him that he was to lie in the harbour, always pretending
that he waited for some cargo not yet forthcoming, such as unharvested
corn, or whatever was convenient, until we appeared again. If after a
certain while we did not appear, then he was to make a trading journey
to neighbouring ports and return to Alexandria. These artifices he must
continue to practise until orders to the contrary reached him under my
own hand, or until he had sure evidence that we were dead. All this the
man promised that he would do.

"Yes,