hrown him like a rat to the terriers!
Why he had acted otherwise he was not certain: perhaps to avoid a
horrible sensation at the Dosah and the outcry of the newspapers of
Europe; perhaps to have him assassinated privately; perhaps, after all,
to pardon him. Yet this last alternative was not reasonable, save from
the stand-point that Ismail had no religion at all.

Whatever it was to be, his fate would soon come, and in any case he had
done what only one European before him had done--he had penetrated to
the tomb of Mahomet at Mecca. Whatever should come, he had crowded into
his short life a thousand unusual and interesting things. His inveterate
curiosity had served him well, and he had paid fairly for the candles of
his game. He was ready.

Low moans came to his ears. He could hear the treading hoofs of the
Sheikh's horse. Nearer and nearer the frightened animal came; the shout
of those who led the horse was in his ears: "Lie close and still,
O brothers of giants!" he heard the ribs of a man but two from him
break-he heard the gurgle in the throat of another into whose neck the
horse's hoof had sunk. He braced himself and drew his breast close to
the ground.

He could hear now the heavy breathing of the Sheikh of the Dosah, who,
to strengthen himself for his ride, had taken a heavy dose of hashish.
The toe of the Arab leading the horse touched his head, then a hoof was
on him--between the shoulders, pressing-pressing down, the iron crushing
into the flesh--down--down--down, till his eyes seemed to fill with
blood. Then another hoof--and this would crush the life out of him. He
gasped, and nerved himself. The iron shoe came down, slipped a little,
grazed his side roughly, and sank between himself and the dervish next
him, who had shrunk away at the last moment.

A mad act; for the horse stumbled, and in recovering himself plunged
forward heavily. Dicky expected the hind hoofs to crush down on his back
or neck, and drew in his breath; but the horse, excited by the cries of
the people, drove clear of him, and the hind hoofs fell with a sickening
thud on the back and neck of the dervish who had been the cause of the
disaster.

Dicky lay still for a moment to get his breath, then sprang to his feet
lightly, cast a swift glance of triumph towards the Khedive, and turned
to the dervishes who had lain beside him. The man who had shrunk away
from the horse's hoofs was dead, the one on the other side was badly
wounded, an