amel-drivers halt their
trains, and face the East with hands uplifted. The call went on--"La
ilaha illa-llah!"

It called David, too. The force and searching energy and fire in it
stole through his veins, and drove from him the sense of futility
and despondency which had so deeply added to his trouble. There was
something for him, too, in that which held infatuated the minds of so
many millions.

A moment later Kaid and he faced each other again. "Effendina," he said,
"thou wilt not desert our work now?"

"Money--for this expedition? Thou hast it?" Kaid asked ironically.

"I have but little money, and it must go to rebuild the mills,
Effendina. I must have it of thee."

"Let them remain in their ashes."

"But thousands will have no work."

"They had work before they were built, they will have work now they are
gone."

"Effendina, I stayed in Egypt at thy request. The work is thy work. Wilt
thou desert it?"

"The West lured me--by things that seemed. Now I know things as they
are."

"They will lure thee again to-morrow," said David firmly, but with a
weight on his spirit. His eyes sought and held Kaid's. "It is too late
to go back; we must go forward or we shall lose the Soudan, and a Mahdi
and his men will be in Cairo in ten years."

For an instant Kaid was startled. The old look of energy and purpose
leaped up into his eye; but it faded quickly again. If, as the Italian
physician more than hinted, his life hung by a thread, did it matter
whether the barbarian came to Cairo? That was the business of those who
came after. If Sharif was right, and his life was saved, there would be
time enough to set things right.

"I will not pour water on the sands to make an ocean," he answered.
"Will a ship sail on the Sahara? Bismillah, it is all a dream! Harrik
was right. But dost thou think to do with me as thou didst with Harrik?"
he sneered. "Is it in thy mind?"

David's patience broke down under the long provocation. "Know then,
Effendina," he said angrily, "that I am not thy subject, nor one
beholden to thee, nor thy slave. Upon terms well understood, I have
laboured here. I have kept my obligations, and it is thy duty to keep
thy obligations, though the hand of death were on thee. I know not what
has poisoned thy mind, and driven thee from reason and from justice. I
know that, Prince Pasha of Egypt as thou art, thou art as bound to me as
any fellah that agrees to tend my door or row my boat. Thy compact
with