k the frothing lip of his barb. With a slide almost on its
haunches, along the soft, golden pavement, the horse came to a
quivering stand. All halted. And for a moment, the stamping of the
high-nerved horses' hoofs echoed up along the tall citadel with its
latticed windows and its machicolated parapet a hundred and fifty feet
in air.

"Well ridden, O Frank! Well ridden by thee and by all thy men
of Feringistan!" exclaimed Bara Miyan, with what seemed real
friendliness, as he sat there on his high saddle, gravely stroking his
beard. "It was a test for thee and thine, to see, by Allah! if the men
of the unbelieving nations be also men like us of Araby!

"We of the Empty Abodes are 'born on horseback.' But ye, white as the
white hand of Musa (Moses) have houses that, so I have heard, move on
iron roads. And I see now ye have flying houses. Wherefore horses are
not dear to you, as to us. But I see that ye can ride like men. Well
done! _Salaam_!"

The Master returned a "_Bikum!_" of thanks. He would have been glad
to wipe his forehead, streaming with sweat; and so, too, would the
others. But pride restrained them. Not for them such weakness as the
use of a handkerchief, in presence of these half-hundred grave-eyed,
silently observing men of Jannati Shahr.

"Faith, though," the major whispered to "Captain Alden," close behind
him, "of all ways to take a walk, my favorite way _not_ to is on an
Arab horse with a saddle like the Inquisition! Tomorrow, oh, my poor
bones, tomorrow!"

Bara Miyan was speaking again, while the Master, Leclair, and
his orderly, Lebon--who alone of the Legionaries understood
Arabic--listened closely.

"Now that we have eaten salt and are _akhawat_ brethren," said he, "we
must break bread together. Let thyself and all thy men partake of food
with us, O Frank! Then we will speak of the present, we shall bestow
on thee. _Bismillah!_ Dismount, White Sheik, and enter!"

The Master bowed, and swung himself from his horse. All did the same,
Legionaries and Arabs alike. And for a moment they stood there in the
sunlight before the long colonnade that occupied the lower story
of the citadel; while from beneath that colonnade issued a dozen or
fifteen of the black, muscular Maghrabi men, two of whom--in the
role of official stranglers--they had already seen. These powerful
half-savages took the horses away, the hoofs clacking hollowly on the
golden pavement.

Bara Miyan led the way in under the colonna