"Then leave her in the hills!" grinned Monty. "Kagig tells me that
the Kurds are riding down in hundreds from Kaisarich way. He says
they'll arrive too late to loot the cities, but they're experts at
hunting along the mountain range. Why not leave the lady to the
tender ministrations of the Kurds!"

"One 'ud think you and Kagig knew of buried treasure! Or has he
promised to make you Duke of Zeitoon?" asked Will. "Tisn't right,
Monty. You've no call to force our band in this way."

"Name a better way," said Monty.

None of us could. The proposal was perfectly logical.

Three of us, even supposing Kagig should care to lend us some of
his Zeitoonli horsemen, would be all too few for the rescue work.
Certainly we could not leave a lady unprotected in these hills, with
the threat of plundering Kurds overhanging. If we found her we could
hardly carry her off up-country if there were any safer course.

"Time--time is swift!" said Kagig, pulling out a watch like a big
brass turnip and shaking it, presumably to encourage the mechanism.

"The fact is," said Monty, drawing us farther aside, for Rustum Khan
was growing restive and inquisitive, "I've not much faith in Kagig's
prospects at Zeitoon. He has talked to me all along the road, and
I don't believe he bases much reliance on his men. He counts more
on holding me as hostage and so obliging the Turkish government to
call off its murderers. If you men can rescue that lady in the hills