The Khedive laughed outright and swore in French. "And the cakes of
dourha! I will give her as a parting gift the twenty slaves, and she
shall bring her great work to a close in the arms of a slaver. It is
worth a fortune."

"It is worth exactly ten thousand pounds to your Highness--ten thousand
pounds neither more nor less."

Ismail questioned.

"Kingsley Bey would make last tribute of thus much to your Highness."

Ismail would not have declined ten thousand centimes. "Malaish!" he
said, and called for coffee, while they planned what should be said to
his Ambassadress from Assiout.

She came trembling, yet determined, and she left with her eyes full of
joyful tears. She was to carry the news of his freedom and the freedom
of his slaves to Kingsley Bey, and she--she, was to bear to Gordon, the
foe of slavery, the world's benefactor, the message that he was to come
and save the Soudan. Her vision was enlarged, and never went from any
prince a more grateful supplicant and envoy.

Donovan Pasha went with her to the room with the mud floor where Kingsley
Bey was confined.

"I owe it all to you," she said as they hastened across the sun-swept
square. "Ah, but you have atoned! You have done it all at once, after
these long years."