r necks in effort to find the Christian tent-maker, but in vain.

Suddenly they heard a cry, a loud voice calling. It was Rahib the
tent-maker. He was beside Kaid's stirrups, but no weapon was in his
hand; and his voice was calling blessings down on the Effendina's head
for having pardoned and saved from death his one remaining son, the joy
of his old age. In all the world there was no prince like Kaid, said the
tent-maker; none so bountiful and merciful and beautiful in the eyes of
men. God grant him everlasting days, the beloved friend of his people,
just to all and greatly to be praised.

As the soldiers drove the old man away with kindly insistence--for Kaid
had thrown him a handful of gold--Mizraim, the Chief Eunuch, laughed
wickedly. As Nahoum had said, the greatest of all weapons was the
mocking finger. He and Mizraim had had their way with the governor
of the prisons, and the murderer had gone in safety, while the father
stayed to bless Kaid. Rahib the tent-maker had fooled the plotters. They
were mad in derision. They did not know that Kaid was as innocent as
themselves of having pardoned the tent-maker's son. Their moment had
passed; they could not overtake it; the match had spluttered and gone
out at the fuel laid for the fire of fanaticism.

The morning of David's departure came. While yet it was dark he had
risen, and had made his last preparations. When he came into the open
air and mounted, it was not yet sunrise, and in that spectral early
light, which is all Egypt's own, Cairo looked like some dream-city in a
forgotten world. The Mokattam Hills were like vast dun barriers guarding
and shutting in the ghostly place, and, high above all, the minarets of
the huge mosque upon the lofty rocks were impalpable fingers pointing
an endless flight. The very trees seemed so little real and substantial
that they gave the eye the impression that they might rise and float
away. The Nile was hung with mist, a trailing cloud unwound from the
breast of the Nile-mother. At last the sun touched the minarets of the
splendid mosque with shafts of light, and over at Ghizeh and Sakkarah
the great pyramids, lifting their heads from the wall of rolling blue
mist below, took the morning's crimson radiance with the dignity of four
thousand years.

On the decks of the little steamer which was to carry them south David,
Ebn Ezra, Lacey, and Mahommed waited. Presently Kaid came, accompanied
by his faithful Nubians, their armour g