e the mark I set," said he. "As for the olive-branch, it is
so large a butt that a child could not miss it at this distance."

"If a child could not, then thou shouldst not," said Sakr-el-Bahr,
who had so placed himself that his body was now between Marzak and the
palmetto bale. "Let us see thee hit it, O Marzak." And as he spoke he
raised his cross-bow, and scarcely seeming to take aim, he loosed his
shaft. It flashed away to be checked, quivering, in the branch he had
indicated.

A chorus of applause and admiration greeted the shot, and drew the
attention of all the crew to what was toward.

Marzak tightened his lips, realizing how completely he had been
outwitted. Willy-nilly he must now shoot at that mark. The choice had
been taken out of his hands by Sakr-el-Bahr. He never doubted that he
must cover himself with ridicule in the performance, and that there he
would be constrained to abandon this pretended match.

"By the Koran," said Biskaine, "thou'lt need all thy skill to equal such
a shot, Marzak."

"'Twas not the mark I chose," replied Marzak sullenly.

"Thou wert the challenger, O Marzak," his father reminded him. "Therefore
the choice of mark was his. He chose a man's mark, and by the beard of
Mohammed, he showed us a man's shot."

Marzak would have flung the bow from him in that moment, abandoning
the method he had chosen to investigate the contents of that suspicious
palmetto bale; but he realized that such a course must now cover him
with scorn. Slowly he levelled his bow at that distant mark.

"Have a care of the sentinel on the hill-top," Sakr-el-Bahr admonished
him, provoking a titter.

Angrily the youth drew the bow. The cord hummed, and the shaft sped to
bury itself in the hill's flank a dozen yards from the mark.

Since he was the son of the Basha none dared to laugh outright save
his father and Sakr-el-Bahr. But there was no suppressing a titter to
express the mockery to which the proven braggart must ever be exposed.

Asad looked at him, smiling almost sadly. "See now," he said, "what
comes of boasting thyself against Sakr-el-Bahr."

"My will was crossed in the matter of a mark," was the bitter answer.
"You angered me and made my aim untrue."

Sakr-el-Bahr strode away to the starboard bulwarks, deeming the matter
at an end. Marzak observed him.

"Yet at that small mark," he said, "I challenge him again." As he spoke
he fitted a second shaft to his bow. "Behold!" he cried, and took ai