associations that had stirred in him as he had stared blindly
about that place of doors.... But he had opened so many forbidden
doors of late that this last was welcome as the supreme test.

And nothing in the world could have been more welcome than a
horse--a horse with a way out behind it!

"Stay back," he said under his breath to Aimee, and clasping his bit
of iron he moved toward the door.

He could see the attendant now, who was finishing his bridling, and
it was Yussuf, the eunuch, so busy gentling and soothing the horse
that he cast only one glance in the direction of the sounds he heard
and that one glance misled him in its glimpse of the general's
cloak.

"By your favor--but an instant," he called out, "and he is ready--"

"Stand aside," said Ryder very clearly, emerging from the shadows at
the horse's heels. "Out of the way with you. The horse is for me."

A moment Yussuf gaped. Then he dropped the bridle and his hand went
swiftly to the knife hilt in his belt.

"Fool!" said Ryder contemptuously. "Would you tempt fate? Do you
think I am such that your knife could harm me? Must I prove to you
again that walls are nothings--that I but let myself be taken to
prove my powers?"

Ethiopians are superstitious. And Yussuf knew that his brick and
mortar had been strong.... Yet they have great trust in a crooked,
short-bladed knife, and Yussuf did not relax his hold upon his and
for all that Ryder could See there was no hesitation in the grinning
ferocity of his black face.

Yet his spring was an instant delayed and in that instant Ryder
spoke again.

"Look, now at the wall behind you," he said quickly.

Yussuf looked. And as he turned his bullet head Ryder jumped close
and brought his iron down upon it with a sickening force he thought
scarcely short of murder.

To his amazement the black did not fall, but staggered only, and
Ryder had need to send the knife spinning from his grasp and strike
again before the eunuch's knees sagged and his huge bulk sank at
Ryder's feet.

This time Ryder took no chance with a shammed unconsciousness. He
snatched down bits of leather from the wall and bound the man's
hands and feet in tight security and seeing that he was breathing,
although heavily, he thrust a gagging handkerchief into his mouth.

Then he dragged the heavy body towards a pile of hay he saw
in a vacant stall and concealed it effectively but not too
smotheringly--although Yussuf, he felt, would be no