I know thee, Nahoum Pasha. Thou art a traitor.
Claridge Pasha would abolish slavery, and thou dost receive great sums
of gold from the slave-dealers to prevent it."

"Is it this thou wilt tell Kaid?" Nahoum asked with a sneer. "And hast
thou proofs?"

"Even this day they have come to my hands from the south."

"Yet I think the proofs thou hast will not avail; and I think that thou
wilt not show them to Kaid. The gift of second thinking is a great gift.
Thou must find greater reason for seeking the Effendina."

"That too shall be. Gold thou hadst to pay the wages of the soldiers of
the south. Thou didst keep the gold and order the slave-hunt; and the
soldiers of the Effendina have been paid in human flesh and blood--ten
thousand slaves since Claridge Pasha left the Soudan, and three thousand
dead upon the desert sands, abandoned by those who hunted them when
water grew scarce and food failed. To-day shall see thy fall."

At his first words Nahoum had felt a shock, from which his spirit
reeled; but an inspiration came to him on the moment; and he listened
with a saturnine coolness to the passionate words of the indignant
figure towering above him. When Ebn Ezra had finished, he replied
quietly:

"It is even as thou sayest, effendi. The soldiers were paid in slaves
got in the slave-hunt; and I have gold from the slave-dealers. I needed
it, for the hour is come when I must do more for Egypt than I have ever
done."

With a gesture of contempt Ebn Ezra made to leave, seeing an official
of the Palace in the distance. Nahoum stopped him. "But, one moment ere
thou dost thrust thy hand into the cockatrice's den. Thou dost measure
thyself against Nahoum? In patience and with care have I trained myself
for the battle. The bulls of Bashan may roar, yet my feet are shod with
safety. Thou wouldst go to Kaid and tell him thy affrighted tale. I tell
thee, thou wilt not go. Thou hast reason yet, though thy blood is hot.
Thou art to Claridge Pasha like a brother--as to his uncle before him,
who furnished my father's palace with carpets. The carpets still soften
the fall of my feet in my father's palace, as they did soften the fall
of my brother's feet, the feet of Foorgat Bey."

He paused, looking at Ebn Ezra with quiet triumph, though his eyes had
ever that smiling innocence which had won David in days gone by. He was
turning his words over on the tongue with a relish born of long waiting.

"Come," he said presently--"come, an