"Promise me, Mohammed," said she, after a long silence, "promise me
that you will never fast and torture yourself so long again."

"I promise you, Sitta Khadra," he replied in a low voice, "you are
right; the body must be strengthened that the soul may be strong. I
need a strong body that I may be able to climb the rocky pathway of
life to the summit, to the eagle's eyry, far above the lowliness of
life. I promise you, mother, that from this day I will no longer
torture my body, but it shall be taught to defy want, and to
subordinate itself to the mind. Do not scold, Mother Khadra, if I am
often away from you. In solitude I learn. I converse with the
invisible spirits that hover about me in the air. They teach me
wondrous things, which I cannot relate to you to-day, but which help
me to prepare for the future. Do not forget, mother, when I am away
from you, and you need me, to call me with the eagle's cry."

A faint smile trembled on her lips. "If, however, son of my heart, I
should be unable to utter this cry, if my voice should be too weak
to reach you-"

He again regarded her with an anxious, inquiring look. "Can that be,
Sitta Khadra? Do you believe your voice can become so weak?"

"Be reassured, my son; I neither believe nor fear it, but yet it
might be."

"Yes, it might be," said he, passing his trembling hand across his
brow. "I shall go to Uncle Toussoun Aga and tell him how to call me.
Only promise me, mother, that, if you need me, and are not able to