, he looked down.

At this Amru rose, went closer to him, and said "And you will seek them
in vain, my young friend; nor, if you found them, could you use them.
It is easier to hit a woman, an eel, a soaring bird, than these supple,
weak, unarmed, robed creatures, who have love and peace on their tongues
and use their physical helplessness as a defence, aiming invisible but
poisoned darts at those they hate--at you first and foremost, Son of the
Mukaukas; I know it and I advise you: Be on your guard! If indeed manly
revenge for this slight on your father's memory is dear to your heart
you can easily procure it--but only on one condition."

"Show it me!" cried Orion with flaming eyes. "Become one of us."

"That is what I came here for. My brain and my arm from this day forth
are at the service of the rulers of my country: yourself and our common
master the Khaliff."

"Ya Salaam--that is well!" cried Amru, laying his hand on Orion's
shoulder. "There is but one God, and yours is ours, too, for there is
none other but He! you will not have to sacrifice much in becoming a
Moslem, for we, too, count your lord Jesus as one of the prophets; and
even you must confess that the last and greatest of them is Mohammed,
the true prophet of God. Every man must acknowledge our lord Mohammed,
who does not wilfully shut his eyes to the events which have come about
under his government and in his name. Your own father admitted..."

"My father?"

"He was forced to admit that we are more zealous, more earnest, more
deeply possessed by our faith than you, his own fellow-believers."

"I know it."

"And when I told him that I had given orders that the desk for the
reader of the Koran in our new mosque should be discarded, because when
he stepped up to it he was uplifted above the other worshippers, the
weary Mukaukas was quite agitated with satisfaction and uttered a
loud cry of approbation. We Moslems--for that was what my commands
implied--must all be equal in the presence of God, the Eternal, the
Almighty, the All-merciful; their leader in prayer must not be raised
above them, even by a head; the teaching of the Prophet points the road
to Paradise, to all alike, we need no earthly guide to show us the way.
It is our faith, our righteousness, our good deeds that open or close
the gates of heaven; not a key in the hand of a priest. When you are one
of us, no Benjamin can embitter your happiness on earth, no Patriarch
can abrogate your