hy people, both here and in the city, as it is in the stomachs of
all my men!"

"I will remember."

"And now, O Bara Miyan, I will show thee the very great gifts that I
have brought thee!"

The Olema nodded, in silence. A great dejection held him and his men.
The Master dispatched half a dozen men for the Myzab and the Black
Stone, also for three sticks of a new explosive he had developed on
the run from the Sahara. This explosive, he calculated, was 2.75 times
more powerful than TNT.

"Men," said he to the remaining Legionaries, "be ready now for
anything. If they show fight, when they realize we have touched the
sacred things of Islam, let them have it to the limit. If the salt
holds them, observe the strictest propriety.

"Some of us may go into the city. Let no man have any traffic with
wine or women. If we commit no blunder, in less than twenty-four hours
we shall be far away, each of us many times a millionaire. Watch your
step!"

The six men returned, carrying the blanket that contained the sacred
things. At the Master's command, they laid the heavy bundle on the
grass before the Olema and his beaten men.

"Behold!" cried the Master. "Gifts without price or calculation! Holy
gifts rescued from unworthy hands, to be delivered into the hands of
True Believers!"

And with swift gestures he flung back the enveloping folds of the
blanket, as if only he, the Master, could do this thing. Then, as the
Myzab and the Stone appeared, he drew from his pocket the Great Pearl
Star, and laid that also on the cloth, crying in a loud voice:

"O, Bara Miyan, and people of Jannati Shahr, behold!"

An hour from that time, the Master and seventeen of the Legionaries
were on their way to the City of Gold.

The stupefaction of the Arabs, their prostrations, cries, prayers
would delay us far too long, in the telling. But the Oath of the Salt
had held; and now reward seemed very near.

There could be no doubt, the Master reflected as he and his men
galloped on the horses that had been assigned to them, with the
white-robed and now silent horde, that the reward--in the form of
exchange gifts--would be practically anything the Legionaries might
ask and be able to carry away.

Treachery was now not greatly to be feared. Even had the salt not
held, fear of the explosive would restrain any hostile move. One stick
of the new compound, exploded at a safe distance by wireless spark,
had utterly demolished the stone which had be