"It may be she buried something there, but if so I did not find it.
I could not stay long, for when she rode away she went like wind,
and I needed to follow at top speed or else be lost. So I let my
mare feel the spurs a time or two, and so it happened that I gained
on the woman; and I suppose she heard me. Whether or no, she waited
in ambush, and sprang out at me as I passed so suddenly that I know
not what god of fools and drunkards preserved her from being cut
down! Not many have ridden out at me from ambush and lived to tell
of it! But I saw who she was in time, and sheathed my steel again,
and cursed her for the gipsy that she half is. The other half is
spawn of Eblis!"

A hundred yards ahead of us Kagig had reached a decision, but it
seemed to be not too late yet in Maga's judgment to try to convert
him. She was speaking vehemently, passionately, throwing down her
reins to expostulate with both hands.

"Kagig isn't the man you'd think a young woman would choose to be
familiar with," Fred said quietly to me, and I wondered what he was
driving at. He is always observant behind that superficial air of
mockery he chooses to assume, but what he had noticed to set him
thinking I could not guess.

Rustum Khan threw away the cigarette I had given him, and went on
with his tale.

"That woman has no virtue."

"How do you know?" demanded Will.