and the third a soldier--and the soldier died first.' 'A camel
of Bagdad,' he called me. Into the belly of a dead camel shall he go, be
sewn up like a cat's liver in a pudding, and cast into the Nile before
God gives tomorrow a sun."

Dicky pushed away the camel-stew. "It is time to go," he said.

The ghdzeeyeh rose with a laugh, caught Dicky by the hand, sprang out
among the Arabs, and leapt over the head of the village barber, calling
them all "useless, sodden greybeards, with no more blood than a Nile
shad, poorer than monkeys, beggars of Beni Hassan!" Taking from her
pocket a handful of quarter-piastres, she turned on her heels and tossed
them among the Arabs with a contemptuous laugh. Then she and Dicky
disappeared into the night.

II

When Dicky left her house, clothed in his own garments once more, but
the stains of henna still on his face and hands and ankles, he pressed
into the ghazeeyeh's hand ten gold-pieces. She let them fall to the
ground.

"Love is love, effendi," she said. "Money do they give me for what is no
love. She who gives freely for love takes naught in return but love, by
the will of God!" And she laid a hand upon his arm.

"There is work to do!" said Dicky; and his hand dropped to where his
pistol lay--but not to threaten her. He was thinking of others.

"To-morrow," she said; "to-morrow for that, effendi," and her beautiful
eyes hung upon his.

"There's corn in Egypt, but who knows who'll reap it to-morrow? And I
shall be in Cairo to-morrow."

"I also shall be in Cairo to-morrow, O my lord and master!" she
answered.

"God give you safe journey," answered Dicky, for he knew it was useless
to argue with a woman. He was wont to say that you can resolve all women
into the same simple elements in the end.

Dicky gave a long perplexed whistle as he ran softly under the palms
towards the Amenhotep, lounging on the mud bank. Then he dismissed
the dancing-girl from his mind, for there was other work to do. How he
should do it he planned as he opened the door of Fielding's cabin softly
and saw him in a deep sleep.

He was about to make haste on deck again, where his own nest was, when,
glancing through the window, he saw Mahommed Ibrahim stealing down the
bank to the boat's side. He softly drew-to the little curtain of the
cabin window, leaving only one small space through which the moonlight
streamed. This ray of light fell just across the door through which
Mahommed Ibrahim would en