e business, and
recognised his master in guile. Iskender was greatly shocked when his
Emir allowed that proven rogue to enter with them. What was his horror
when, arrived in the bedroom, his Highness lightly asked Elias if he
had ever heard of a place in the interior where gold lay on the surface
of the ground.

His lord shot a glance at Iskender to reassure him on the score of
secrecy. But the poor youth gnashed his teeth and clenched his hands.
He saw his credit hanging on a thread, his new-found favour on the
point of leaving him, Elias avenged, triumphant. The dragoman had
travelled far and wide; he was sure to ridicule the tale, and prove
convincingly that no such place existed. He could hardly suppress a
cry when Elias, instead of laughing, pulled a grave face and solemnly
affirmed:

"I know it well."

"Have you been there?" inquired the Emir, himself astonished. "I heard
of it to-day by chance, and am curious to know the whole story of it."

"Not I myself. But I know one man what went there. He left this bart
of the country, though; may be dead, by Jofe, for what I know!"

Interrogated further, Elias declared that the name of the place was
well known. It was Wady 'l Muluk, the Valley of the Kings; though why
he could not say, unless it were because the kings of old, who were
certainly richer than kings are nowadays, derived their gold from
thence. Many persons had, at divers times, set out to find that place;
but few had reached it, for the reason that no one knew the road
exactly, and the desert tribes were fond of killing travellers.

"Don't you make no mistake!" he concluded. "The Wady 'l Muluk, he's
there all right, only a job to find him. If you want to hear about
him, I tell you what, dear sir, I ask some beebles."

"I should be obliged if you would," said the Frank.

Iskender was still in the stupefied state of one who wakes to find his
dream made real. After such evidence from Elias, an unprepared,
impartial person, there was no longer any room for doubt but that the
gold of his vision actually existed. He felt a trifle jealous of the
witness for knowing more about it than he did himself. A servant
summoning the Emir to dinner, he went out into the twilight with Elias,
who still treated him with the gravest deference. As they walked away
together, the dragoman still talking of the wonders of the place of
gold, Iskender could not help informing him that he had certain
knowledge of