es from us, and go to what fate Allah
parcels out to you!"

There arose a buzzing. "Better we slay him here and now! So Allah will
know our side!"

Zeyn al-Din stepped forth. "This is the friend of my friend and I am
pledged. Slay, and you will have two to slay! O Allah! what a thing it
is to stare at the west when the riders are in the east!"

"Zeyn al-Din, we have chosen for head man Abu al-Salam."

"Allah with you! I should say you had chosen well. I have twelve
camels," said Zeyn al-Din. "I make another caravan! Mansur, Omar, and
Melec, draw you forth my camels and mules!"

With a weaker man there might have been interference, stoppage. But
Zeyn's mass and force acquired clear space for his own movements. He
made his caravan. He had with him so many men. Three of these stood by
him; the others cowered into the great caravan, into the shadow of Abu
al-Salam.

Zeyn threw a withering look. "Oh, precious is the skin!"

The big infidel came to him. "Zeyn al-Din, I do not want all this
peril for me. I have ridden away alone before to-day. Now I shall go
in that direction, and I shall find a garden."

"Perhaps we shall find it," said Zeyn. "Does any other go with my
caravan?"

It seemed that Ali the Wanderer went, and the dervish Abdallah....
There was more ado, but at last the caravan parted.... The great one,
the long string of beads, drew with slow toil across the waste, along
the old track. The very small one, the tiny string of beads, departed
at right angles. Space grew between them. The dervish Abdallah turned
upon his camel.

"It seems that we part. But, O Allah! around 'We part' is drawn 'We
are together!'"

Zeyn al-Din made a gesture of assent. "O I shall meet in bazaars Abu
al-Salam! 'Ha! Zeyn al-Din!'--'Ha! Abu al-Salam!'"

The sun sank lower. The vastly larger caravan drew away, drew away,
over the desert rim. Between the two was now a sea of desert waves.
Where the great string of camels, the asses, the riders, the men could
be seen, all were like little figures cut from dark paper, drawn by
some invisible finger, slowly, slowly across a wide floor. Before long
there were only dots, far in the distance. Around Zeyn al-Din's
caravan swept a great solitude.

"Halt!" said Zeyn. "Now they observe us no longer, and this is what we
do!"

All the merchant lading was taken from the camels. The bales of wealth
strewed the sand. "Wealth is a comfortable garment," said Zeyn, "but
life is a richer yet