d the sword. These are great, but there is a greater. It is
the mocking finger. At midnight, when Kaid goes to the Mosque Mahmoud,
a finger will mock the plotters till they are buried in confusion. Thou
knowest the governor of the prisons--has he not need of something? Hath
he never sought favours of thee?"

"Bismillah, but a week ago!"

"Then, listen, thou shepherd of the sheep--"

He paused, as there came a tap at the door, and a slave entered
hurriedly and addressed Nahoum. "The effendi, Ebn Ezra Bey, whom thou
didst set me to watch, he hath entered the Palace, and asks for the
Effendina."

Nahoum started, and his face clouded, but his eyes flashed fire. He
tossed the slave a coin. "Thou hast done well. Where is he now?"

"He waits in the hall, where is the statue of Mehemet Ali and the
lions."

"In an hour, Mizraim, thou shalt hear what I intend. Peace be to thee!"

"And on thee, peace!" answered Mizraim, as Nahoum passed from the room,
and walked hastily towards the hall where he should find Ebn Ezra Bey.
Nearing the spot, he brought his step to a deliberate slowness, and
appeared not to notice the stately Arab till almost upon him.

"Salaam, effendi," he said smoothly, yet with inquisition in his eye,
with malice in his tone.

"Salaam, Excellency."

"Thou art come on the business of thy master?"

"Who is my master, Excellency?"

"Till yesterday it was Claridge Pasha. Hast thou then forsaken him in
his trouble--the rat from the sinking ship?"

A flush passed over Ebn Ezra Bey's face, and his mouth opened with a
gasp of anger. Oriental though he was, he was not as astute as this
Armenian Christian, who was purposely insulting him, that he might, in
a moment of heat, snatch from him the business he meant to lay before
Kaid. Nahoum had not miscalculated.

"I have but one master, Excellency," Ebn Ezra answered quietly at last,
"and I have served him straightly. Hast thou done likewise?"

"What is straight to thee might well be crooked to me, effendi."

"Thou art crooked as the finger of a paralytic."

"Yet I have worked in peace with Claridge Pasha for these years past,
even until yesterday, when thou didst leave him to his fate."

"His ship will sail when thine is crumbling on the sands, and all thou
art is like a forsaken cockatrice's nest."

"Is it this thou hast come to say to the Effendina?"

"What I have come to say to the Effendina is for the world to know after
it hath reached his ears.