claims and your father's to eternal bliss. You have
chosen well, boy! Your hand, my convert to the true faith!"

And he held out his hand to Orion with glad excitement. But the young
man did not take it; he drew back a little and said rather uneasily:

"Do not misunderstand me, great Captain. Here is my hand, and I can know
no greater honor than that of grasping yours, of wielding my sword under
your command, of wearing it out in your service and in that of my lord
the Khaliff; but I cannot be untrue to my faith."

"Then be crushed by Benjamin--you and all your people!" cried Armu,
disappointed and angry. He waved his hand with a gesture of disgust and
dismissal, and then turned to the Vekeel with a shrug, to answer the
man's scornful exclamation.

Orion looked at them in dumb indecision; but he quickly collected
himself, and said in a tone of modest but urgent entreaty:

"Nay; hear me and do not reject my petition. It could only be to my
advantage to go over to you; and yet I can resist so great a temptation;
but for that very reason I shall keep faith with you as I do to my
religion."

"Until the priests compel you to break it," interrupted the Arab
roughly.

"No, no!" cried Orion. "I know that Benjamin is my foe; but I have lost
a beloved parent, and I believe in a meeting beyond the grave."

"So do I," replied the Moslem. "And there is but one Paradise and one
Hell, as there is but one God."

"What gives you this conviction?"

"My faith."

"Then forgive me if I cling to mine, and hope to see my father once more
in that Heaven...."

"The heaven to which, as you fools believe, no souls but your own are
admitted! But supposing that it is open only to the immortal spirit
of Moslems and closed against Christians?--What do you know of that
Paradise? I know your sacred Scriptures--Is it described in them? But
the All-merciful allowed our Prophet to look in, and what he saw he
has described as though the Most High himself had guided his reed. The
Moslem knows what Heaven has to offer him,--but you? Your Hell, you do
know; your priests are more readier to curse than to bless. If one of
you deviates by one hair's breadth from their teaching they thrust
him out forthwith to the abode of the damned.--Me and mine, the Greek
Christians, and--take my word for it boy--first and foremost you and
your father!"

"If only I were sure of finding him there!" cried Orion striking his
breast. "I really should not fear to