then! You take camels or mules?
Camels hold the most, but mules much nicer. We say fifty mules. Then
you want a cook, and a waiter, and 'bout ten muleteers, and five--six
big tents. I think you do it easy, grub an' all, sir, for 'bout five
hundred bound."

"Good Lord!" ejaculated the Emir.

"Well, I do it for less, much less, but you be uncomfortable."

Iskender, then awaking from his trance of horror, grasped the
dragoman's arm and shook it angrily.

"What do we want with fifty mules, O ass?" he asked in Arabic. "One
mule would carry enough to make us all as rich as Musa el Barudi."

"By Allah, thou art an ass thyself! Is it not well to bring away the
most we can," returned the visionary, sore dismayed; when, seeing how
their talk apart made the Frank suspicious, he relapsed into English
with a genial smile:

"Yes, fifty too dam' many; we take ten. A friend of mine got three
nice tents--a bit old, but neffer mind! He let you haf 'em cheab,
because he luf me. Then three horses for you and me and 'Skender. How
far you say it is?" He turned to Iskender. "You know the way."

"About nine days from here, accordin' to the baber which my father
wrote. My mother kebt it to this day."

"Well, sir, I think you get there under one hundred bound, and once you
got the gold you not care a dam' what it coss comin' back."

"No," said the Frank firmly. "I want to know the expenses there and
back, and I can't afford more than fifty pounds for the whole
expedition."

At this unlooked-for ultimatum Elias opened his eyes very wide and
sucked his pencil, staring ruefully at his scattered testimonials. He
declared it to be "no go."

But Iskender, seeing the opportunity for self-assertion, stood by the
Frank, undertaking recklessly to arrange the whole expedition, on a
smaller scale, for the sum stipulated.

Elias shrugged to the ears.

"Be careful to keep this secret," he said sullenly in Arabic. "By
Allah, if the others, who dislike thee already, get to know of it, they
will go mad with rage and probably take thy life. Abdullah, thy uncle,
himself would wish to slay thee. For a missionary or a resident in the
country, and out of season, it might pass. But this is a lord of
wealth, a prince, the best sort of traveller!"

"Canst thou not perceive, O my dear, that the desire of his Honour is
for rough adventure, and not luxury? And verily, to travel in the
style of thy proposal would simply be to invite eve