governor's representative here. Othman or I? Take the prisoner to my
house."

And he forthwith went home. But instead of the prisoner there presently
appeared before him an official of the Kadi's household, who informed
him, from his master, that as the Khaliff had constituted Othman supreme
judge in Egypt this matter was in his hands; if Obada wished to see the
prisoner he might go to the Kadi's residence, or visit him later in the
town prison of Memphis, whither Orion would presently be transferred.

He rushed off, raging, to his enemy's house, but his stormy fury was met
by the placidity of a calm and judicial mind. Othman was a man between
forty and fifty years old, but his soft, black beard was already turning
grey; his noble dark face bore the stamp of a lofty, high-bred soul,
and a keen but temperate spirit shone in his eyes. There was something
serene and clear in his whole person; he was a man to bear the burthen
of life's vicissitudes with dignity, while he had set himself the task
of saving others from them so far as in him lay.

The patriarch's complaints had come also to the Kadi's knowledge, and
he, too, was minded to exact retribution for the massacre of the Moslem
soldiers; but the punishment should fall on none but the guilty. He
would have been sorry to believe that Orion was one of them, for he had
esteemed his father as a brave man and a just judge, and had taken many
a word of good advice from the experienced Egyptian.

The scene between him and the infuriated Vekeel was a painful one even
for the attendants who stood round; and Orion, who heard Obada's
raging from the adjoining room, could gather from it some idea of the
relentless hatred with which his negro enemy would persecute him.

However, as after the wildest storm the sea ebbs in ripples so even this
tempest came to a more peaceful conclusion. The Kadi represented to the
Vekeel what an unheard-of thing it would be, and in what a disgraceful
light it would set Moslem justice if one of the noblest families in
the country--to whose head, too, the cause of Islam owed so much--were
robbed of its possessions on mere suspicion. To this the Vekeel replied
that there were definite accusations brought by the head of the native
Church, and that nothing had been robbed, but merely confiscated and
placed in security. As to what Allah had thought fit to destroy by fire,
no one could be held answerable for that. There was no "mere suspicion"
in the c