ther than himself tomorrow. What he knew Kaid did not know.
He had not meant to act yet; but new facts faced him, and he must make
one struggle for his life. But as he went towards Mizraim's quarters he
saw no sure escape from the stage of those untoward events, save by the
exit which is for all in some appointed hour.

He was not, however, more perplexed and troubled than David, who, in
the little room where he had been brought and left alone with coffee and
cigarettes, served by a slave from some distant portion of the Palace,
sat facing his future.

David looked round the little room. Upon the walls hung weapons of every
kind--from a polished dagger of Toledo to a Damascus blade, suits of
chain armour, long-handled, two-edged Arab swords, pistols which had
been used in the Syrian wars of Ibrahim, lances which had been taken
from the Druses at Palmyra, rude battle-axes from the tribes of the
Soudan, and neboots of dom-wood which had done service against
Napoleon at Damietta. The cushions among which he sat had come from
Constantinople, the rug at his feet from Tiflis, the prayer-rug on the
wall from Mecca.

All that he saw was as unlike what he had known in past years as though
he had come to Mars or Jupiter. All that he had heard recalled to him
his first readings in the Old Testament--the story of Nebuchadnezzar, of
Belshazzar, of Ahasuerus--of Ahasuerus! He suddenly remembered the
face he had seen looking down at the Prince's table from the panel of
mooshrabieh. That English face--where was it? Why was it there? Who
was the man with her? Whose the dark face peering scornfully over her
shoulder? The face of an English girl in that place dedicated to sombre
intrigue, to the dark effacement of women, to the darker effacement of
life, as he well knew, all too often! In looking at this prospect for
good work in the cause of civilisation, he was not deceived, he was not
allured. He knew into what subterranean ways he must walk, through what
mazes of treachery and falsehood he must find his way; and though he
did not know to the full the corruption which it was his duty to Kaid
to turn to incorruption, he knew enough to give his spirit pause. What
would be--what could be--the end? Would he not prove to be as much out
of place as was the face of that English girl? The English girl! England
rushed back upon him--the love of those at home; of his father, the only
father he had ever known; of Faith, the only mother or siste