and sorrowed for him--who shall say what
miseries are those which, minute to minute, day after day, and year upon
year, repeat themselves, till it is an endless flaying of the body and
burning of the soul! Every year I send a message to him, and every year
now this Christian monk--there is no Sheikh-el-Islam yonder--brings back
the written message which he finds in the sand."

"And thee has had a message to-night?"

"The last that may come--God be praised, he goeth to his long home. It
was written in his last hour. There was no hope; he is gone. And so, one
more reason showeth why I should go where thou goest, Saadat."

Casting his eyes toward the figure by the acacia-tree, his face clouded
and he pondered anxiously, looking at David the while. Twice he essayed
to speak, but paused.

David's eyes followed his look. "What is it? Who is he--yonder?"

The other rose to his feet. "Come and see, Saadat," he replied. "Seeing,
thou wilt know what to do."

"Zaida--is it of Zaida?" David asked.

"The man will answer for himself, Saadat." Coming within a few feet of
the figure crouched upon the rock, Ebn Ezra paused and stretched out
a hand. "A moment, Saadat. Dost thou not see, dost thou not recognise
him?"

David intently studied the figure, which seemed unconscious of their
presence. The shoulders were stooping and relaxed as though from great
fatigue, but David could see that the figure was that of a tall man. The
head was averted, but a rough beard covered the face, and, in the light
of the fire, one hand that clutched it showed long and skinny and yellow
and cruel. The hand fascinated David's eyes. Where had he seen it? It
flashed upon him--a hand clutching a robe, in a frenzy of fear, in the
court-yard of the blue tiles, in Kaid's Palace--Achmet the Ropemaker! He
drew back a step.

"Achmet," he said in a low voice. The figure stirred, the hand dropped
from the beard and clutched the knee; but the head was not raised, and
the body remained crouching and listless.

"He escaped?" David said, turning to Ebn Ezra Bey.

"I know not by what means--a camel-driver bribed, perhaps, and a camel
left behind for him. After the caravan had travelled a day's journey he
joined it. None knew what to do. He was not a leper, and he was armed."

"Leave him with me," said David.

Ebn Ezra hesitated. "He is armed; he was thy foe--"

"I am armed also," David answered enigmatically, and indicated by a
gesture that he wished to b