he wore and his Eastern robe--yes, and the passage of all those years--I
knew it for that of my son. Some spirit of madness entered into me, and
I called aloud, 'Roderick, Roderick!' and he started up, staring about
him wildly. The audience started up also, and one of them caught sight
of me lurking in the shadow.

"With a howl of rage, for I had desecrated their sanctuary, they sprang
at me. To save my life, coward that I was, I fled back through the
gates. Yes, after all those years of seeking, still I fled rather than
die, and though I was wounded with a spear and stones, managed to reach
and spring upon my horse. Then, as I was headed off from our camp,
I galloped away anywhere, still to save my miserable life from those
savages, so strongly is the instinct of self-preservation implanted
in us. From a distance I looked back and saw by the light of the fired
tents that the Fung were attacking the Arabs with whom I had travelled,
I suppose because they thought them parties to the sacrilege. Afterwards
I heard that they killed them every one, poor men, but I escaped, who
unwittingly had brought their fate upon them.

"On and on I galloped up a steep road. I remember hearing lions roaring
round me in the darkness. I remember one of them springing upon my
horse and the poor beast's scream. Then I remember no more till I found
myself--I believe it was a week or so later--lying on the verandah of
a nice house, and being attended by some good-looking women of an
Abyssinian cast of countenance."

"Sounds rather like one of the lost tribes of Israel," remarked Higgs
sarcastically, puffing at his big meerschaum.

"Yes, something of that sort. The details I will give you later. The