mastaba by the house, the holy men beside him, and pointing to the Arab
youth, spoke loudly:

"This sister of scorpions and crocodiles has earned a thousand deaths.
She was a daughter of a pasha, and was lifted high. She was made the
wife of Abbas Bey, our Mudir. Like a wanton beast she cut off her hair,
clothed herself as a man, journeyed to Mecca, and desecrated the tomb of
Mahomet, who hath written that no woman, save her husband of his goodness
bring her, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

He paused, and pointed to the rough pictures on the walls. "This
morning, dressed as a man, she went in secret to the sacred purple pillar
for barren women in the Mosque of Amrar, by the Bahr-el-Yusef, and was
found there with her tongue to it. What shall be done to this accursed
tree in the garden of Mahomet?"

"Cut it down!" shouted the crowd; and the Ulema standing beside the
Sheikh-el-beled said: "Cut down for ever the accursed tree."

"To-morrow, at sunrise, she shall die as a blasphemer, this daughter of
Sheitan the Evil One," continued the holy men.

"What saith the Mudir?" cried a tax-gatherer. "The Mudir himself shall
see her die at sunrise," answered the chief of the Ulema.

Shouts of hideous joy went up. At that moment the woman's eyes met
Dicky's, and they suddenly lighted. Dicky picked his way through the
crowd, and stood before the Sheikh-el-beled. With an Arab salute, he
said: