ittered the jewelled
hilt of a dagger. One hand touched the hem of her master's coat, but
what the bastinado had left of the little feet seemed to shriek aloud
for vengeance, vengeance for the dead child, and vengeance for all
those who had likewise suffered.

"Allah! Allah!" The cry cleft the stillness of the room as the boy's
eyes fell upon the terrible sight; and the knife flashed twice and
thrice, and yet again, until the evil beauty of the dead man's face had
been entirely obliterated, and a strong hand gripped the supple wrist.

"Come, O! brother! Waste not thy strength upon the dead. Behold! Yon
little maid has carried out our master's wish, may she rest in the
delights of paradise with the beloved of Allah whose prophet is
Mohammed, and may the spirit of him who is accursed enter into the body
of a pig to live eternally in filth and dishonour!"

And the sun had risen upon a cleaner day when the twain departed from
the house of shadows.

CHAPTER XVII

It was close upon dawn when to Jill's ears was borne a faint melodious
sound.

Inexpressibly weary was she, exhausted to the point of fainting, for in
spite of numerous haltings, the drinking of tea, coffee, and sherbet,
and the eating of cakes and curious Egyptian sweetmeats, had in no way
lessened the agony of her lower limbs, which she moved this way and
that in the vain effort to relieve the terrible cramp that seemed to
creep from her spine to her brain, and down again to her feet.

The stars danced before and around her, as she swayed to and fro to the
deadly lurching rhythm of the camel's pace; one thing, and one thing
only, having so far saved her from the utter dissolution of fatigue,
and that being when, urged by their master's voice, the three animals
had broken into a gentle trot, ending in a pace which literally took
away the girl's breath; but even that relaxation had had to be
abandoned as the nature of the ground changed.

Most people's conception of the desert is that of one huge expanse of
smooth sand, with here and there a palm tree to break the monotony; an
entirely wrong conception, bred partly, I think, from the highly
coloured scriptural pictures of our youth.

There are tracts of sand extending for many miles, such as those around
big cities into which you wander on camel-back at so much an hour, and
with the description of which you hold your less travelled neighbours
enthralled, as you intersperse the munching of muff