ddy luster he was like one of those
sphinxes which ornament the entrances to ancient Egyptian temples.

The horses began to sit upon their haunches, to wince and draw back.
The amazed and frightened riders did not know what to do; so from mouth
to mouth there flowed only the fearsome and helpless words, "Allah!
Bismillah! Allah akbar!"

And the king of the wilderness gazed at them from above, motionless as
if cast of bronze.

Gebhr and Chamis had heard from traders, who came to Egypt from the
Sudan with ivory and gum, that lions sometimes lie down in the paths of
caravans, which, on account of this, must turn aside. But here there
was no place which they could turn to. It behoved them perhaps to turn
about and fly. Yes! But in such case it was a certainty that the
dreadful beast would rush after them in pursuit.

Again resounded the feverish interrogations:

"What is to be done?"

"Allah! Perhaps he will step aside."

"No, he will not."

And again a silence fell. Only the snorting of the horses and the
quickened breathing of the human breasts could be heard.

"Untie Kali!" Chamis suddenly exclaimed to Gebhr, "and we will escape
on the horses; the lion will first overtake him, and kill him only."

"Do that," repeated the Bedouins.

But Gebhr surmised that in such a case Kali, in the twinkling of an
eye, would climb on the rocky wall and the lion would chase after the
horses; therefore another horrible idea suggested itself to him. He
would kill the boy with his knife and fling his body ahead of him and
then the lion, dashing after them, would see on the ground the bleeding
corpse and stop to devour it.

So he dragged Kali by the rope to the saddle and had already raised his
knife, when in the same second Stas clutched the wide sleeve of his
jubha.

"Villain! What are you doing?"

Gebhr began to tug and, if the boy had seized him by the hand, he would
have freed it at once, but it was not so easy with the sleeve; so he
began to tug, and splutter with a voice stifled with fury.

"Dog! if he is not enough, I shall stab you both! Allah! I shall stab
you! I shall stab you!"

And Stas paled mortally, for like lightning the thought flashed through
his mind that the lion chasing after the horses above all might
actually overlook Kali, and in such case Gebhr with the greatest
certainty would stab them both in turn.

So pulling the sleeve with redoubled strength he shouted:

"Give me the short rifle! I will