in the world's history. This
regiment of Nubians Kaid had recruited from the far south, and had
maintained at his own expense. When they saw him at the window now,
their swords clashed on their thighs and across their breasts, and they
raised a great shout of greeting.

"Well?" asked Kaid, with a ring to the voice. "They are loyal,
Effendina, every man. But the army otherwise is honeycombed with
treason. Effendina, my money has been busy in the army paying
and bribing officers, and my spies were costly. There has been
sedition--conspiracy; but until I could get the full proofs I waited; I
could but bribe and wait. Were it not for the money I had spent, there
might have been another Prince of Egypt."

Kald's face darkened. He was startled, too. He had been taken unawares.
"My brother Harrik--!"

"And I should have lost my place, lost all for which I cared. I had no
love for money; it was but a means. I spent it for the State--for the
Effendina, and to keep my place. I lost my place, however, in another
way."

"Proofs! Proofs!" Kaid's voice was hoarse with feeling.

"I have no proofs against Prince Harrik, no word upon paper. But there
are proofs that the army is seditious, that, at any moment, it may
revolt."

"Thou hast kept this secret?" questioned Kaid darkly and suspiciously.

"The time had not come. Read, Effendina," he added, handing some papers
over.

"But it is the whole army!" said Kaid aghast, as he read. He was
convinced.

"There is only one guilty," returned Nahoum. Their eyes met. Oriental
fatalism met inveterate Oriental distrust and then instinctively Kaid's
eyes turned to David. In the eyes of the Inglesi was a different thing.
The test of the new relationship had come. Ferocity was in his heart,
a vitriolic note was in his voice as he said to David, "If this be
true--the army rotten, the officers disloyal, treachery under every
tunic--bismillah, speak!"

"Shall it not be one thing at a time, Effendina?" asked David. He made a
gesture towards Nahoum. Kaid motioned to a door. "Wait yonder," he said
darkly to Nahoum. As the door opened, and Nahoum disappeared leisurely
and composedly, David caught a glimpse of a guard of armed Nubians in
leopard-skins filed against the white wall of the other room.

"What is thy intention towards Nahoum, Effendina?" David asked
presently.

Kaid's voice was impatient. "Thou hast asked his life--take it; it
is thine; but if I find him within these walls again