dangerous. Danger was in the air. The tax-gatherers had lately gone
their rounds, and the agents of the Mouffetish had wielded the kourbash
without mercy and to some purpose. It was perhaps lucky that the
incident had occurred within smell of the evening feasts and near the
sounding of the sunset-gun.




III

A half-hour later, as Abdalla thrust his fingers into the dish and handed
Dicky a succulent cucumber filled with fried meat, the latter said to
him: "It is the wish of the Effendina, my friend. It comes as the will
of God; for even as Noor-ala-Noor journeyed to the bosom of God by your
will, and by your prayers, being descended from Mahomet as you are, even
then Ismail, who knew naught of your sorrow, said to me, 'In all Egypt
there is one man, and one only, for whom my soul calls to go into the
desert with Gordon,' and I answered him and said: 'Inshallah, Effendina,
it is Abdalla, the Egyptian.' And he laid his hand upon his head--I have
seen him do that for no man since I came into his presence--and said:
'My soul calls for him. Find him and bid him to come. Here is my
ring.'"

Dicky took from his pocket a signet-ring, which bore a passage from the
Koran, and laid it beside Abdalla's drinking-bowl.

"What is Ismail to me--or the far tribes of the Soudan! Here are my
people," was the reply. Abdalla motioned to the next room, where the
blind men ate their evening meal, and out to the dimly lighted streets