to say how tenderly that Druze
chief loved me, and how depressed I was by sorrow for his grievous
illness. In short, it was imperative that we should go at once to the
Druze mountain. What were our feelings when we suddenly bethought us
that there was danger in that region for an Arab knight! Must we then
part from our beloved, from our souls' companion? Suleyman declared
that we had wept like babes at such a prospect. No, that must never
be; our grief would kill us. We had been obliged to think of some
contrivance by which our hearts' delight might bear us company without
much risk, and with the help of Allah we had hit upon a splendid plan,
yet simple: That he should lay aside his lance and armour, dress as a
Christian, and become our cook.

'Why need he seem a Christian?' asked Rashid.

'Because all cooks who go with English travellers are Christians,' was
the earnest answer, 'and because no man would ever think to find a
Bedawi beneath a Christian's cloak.'

'A person of my master's standing ought to have a cook,' murmured
Rashid, as one who thought aloud.

Never have I seen such horror in the face of man as then convulsed the
features of the desert knight. He, a cook! He, the descendant of I
know not whom, to wear the semblance of a heathen and degraded
townsman! Rather than that he would encounter twenty spear-points. If
we were going to the mountain of the Druzes, we might go alone!

We all were eager to express regret. He listened with a sneer, and
answered nothing. After a while he beckoned me to speak apart with
him, and, when we were beyond the hearing of the others, said:

'I leave thee now, O Faranji, and journey towards Nejd to seek
adventures. Thou lovest me I am aware, and so I grieve to part from
thee; but thy adherents are low people and devoured by envy. If ever
we should meet again I will destroy them. If thou shouldst travel
south and eastward through the Belka, remember me, I beg, and seek our
tents. There thou shalt find a welcome far more hospitable than the
Druze will give thee. I shall never cease to pray for thee. My grief
will be extreme until we meet again. I pray thee give me that revolver
as a souvenir.'

CHAPTER XII

THE FANATIC

A European hat in those days was a rarity except in the large towns,
and it attracted notice. That is the reason why I generally discarded
it, with other too conspicuously Western adjuncts. Where the
inhabitants were not well-mannered, the hat