I love in the world, except your family. You know how I respect
them. Is not Besso my father? And the great Sheikh, I honour the great
Sheikh. He is one of my allies. Even this accursed business proves it.
Besides, what do you mean, by words of contumely from my lips? Am I not
a Jew myself, or as good? Why should I insult them? I only wish we were
in the Land' of Promise, instead of this infernal wilderness.'

'Well, well, let us consult together,' said Eva, 'reproaches are
barren.'

'Ah! Eva,' said Fakredeen, 'I am not reproaching you; but if, the
evening I was at Bethany, you had only told me that you had just parted
with this Englishman, all this would not have occurred.'

'How do you know that I had then just parted with this Englishman?' said
Eva, colouring and confused.

'Because I marked him on the road. I little thought then that he had
been in your retreat. I took him for some Frank, looking after the tomb
of Lazarus.'

'I found him in my garden,' said Eva, not entirely at her ease, 'and
sent my attendants to him.'

Fakredeen was walking up and down the tent, and seemed lost in thought.
Suddenly he stopped and said, 'I see it all; I have a combination that
will put all right.'

'Put all right?'

'See, the day after to-morrow I have appointed to meet a friend of mine
at Gaza, who has a caravan that wants convoy through the desert to the
mountain. The Sheikh of Sheikhs shall have it. It will be as good as ten
thousand piastres. That will be honey in his mouth. He will forget the
past, and our English friend can return with you and me to El Khuds.'

'I shall not return to El Khuds,' said Eva. 'The great Sheikh will
convoy me to Damascus, where I shall remain till I go to Aleppo.'

'May you never reach Aleppo!' said Fakredeen, with a clouded
countenance, for Eva in fact alluded to her approaching marriage with
her cousin.

'But after all,' resumed Eva, wishing to change the current of his
thoughts, 'all these arrangements, so far as I am interested, depend
upon the success of my mission to the great Sheikh. If he will not
release my father's charge, the spears of his people will never guard
me again. And I see little prospect of my success; nor do I think ten
thousand piastres, however honestly gained, will be more tempting than
the inclination to oblige our house.'

'Ten thousand piastres is not much,' said Fakredeen. 'I give it every
three months for interest to a little Copt at Beiroot, whose pro