"No, he found Mandane for himself without my help."

"It is the same thing!" cried the governor jovially. "I will provide
for her. But that must satisfy you, or else all those unbelievers whom
we are settling here will drive us Moslem Arabs out of the land."

The great man had often held such discourse as this with the child since
she had entered his tent at Berenice, there to lay before him the case of
the couple she loved, and for whom she had taken on herself great risk
and hardship; she had pleaded so eloquently, so kindly, and with such
fervent and pathetic words, that Amru had at once made up his mind to
grant her everything that lay in his power. Mary had done him a service,
too, by bringing him the information she could give him, for it enabled
him to avert perils which threatened the interests of the Crescent, and
also to save the children of two men he honored--the son of the Mukaukas,
and the daughter of Thomas--from imminent danger.

He found, on his return home, that the Vekeel's crimes far exceeded his
worst fears. Obada's proceedings had begun to undermine that respect for
Arab rule and Moslem justice which Amru had done his utmost to secure.
It was only by a miracle that Orion had escaped his plots, for he had
three times sent assassins to the prison, and it was entirely owing to
the watchful care of pretty Emau's husband that the youth had been able
to save himself in the fire. Obada had done all this to clear out of his
path the hated man whose statements and impeachments might ruin him.
The wretch had met a less ignominious death than his judges would have
granted him. The wealth found hoarded in his dwelling was sent to
Medina; and even Orion was forced to see the vast sums of which the Negro
had plundered his treasury, appropriated by the Arabs. The Arab governor