hem all. Kaid drew back as though
smitten by a blow.

Presently, upon the silence, her voice sharp with agony said: "I am a
leper, and I go to that desert place which my lord has set apart for
lepers, where, dead to the world, I shall watch the dreadful years come
and go. Behold, I would die, but that I have a sister there these many
years, and her sick soul lives in loneliness. O my lord, forgive me!
Here was I happy; here of old I did sing to thee, and I came to sing to
thee once more a death-song. Also, I came to see thee do justice, ere I
went from thy face for ever."

Kaid's head was lowered on his breast. He shuddered. "Thou art so
beautiful--thy voice, all! Thou wouldst see justice--speak! Justice
shall be made plain before thee."

Twice she essayed to speak, and could not; but from his sweetmeats and
the shadows Mahommed crept forward, kissed the ground before Kaid, and
said: "Effendina, thou knowest me as the servant of thy high servant,
Claridge Pasha."

"I know thee--proceed."

"Behold, she whom God has smitten, man smote first. I am her
foster-brother--from the same breast we drew the food of life. Thou
wouldst do justice, O Effendina; but canst thou do double justice--ay,
a thousandfold? Then"--his voice raised almost shrilly--"then do it
upon Achmet Pasha. She--Zaida--told me where I should find the
bridge-opener."

"Zaida once more!" Kaid murmured.

"She had learned all in Achmet's harem--hearing speech between Achmet
and the man whom thou didst deliver to my hands yesterday."

"Zaida-in Achmet's harem?" Kaid turned upon her.

Swiftly she told her dreadful tale, how, after Achmet had murdered all
of her except her body, she rose up to kill herself; but fainting, fell
upon a burning brazier, and her hand thrust accidentally in the live
coals felt no pain. "And behold, O my lord, I knew I was a leper; and I
remembered my sister and lived on." So she ended, in a voice numbed and
tuneless.

Kaid trembled with rage, and he cried in a loud voice: "Bring Achmet
forth."

As the slave sped upon the errand, David laid a hand on Kaid's arm, and
whispered to him earnestly. Kaid's savage frown cleared away, and his
rage calmed down; but an inflexible look came into his face, a look
which petrified the ruined Achmet as he salaamed before him.

"Know thy punishment, son of a dog with a dog's heart, and prepare for
a daily death," said Kaid. "This woman thou didst so foully wrong, even
when thou didst wr