"Behold, Saadat--from Ebn Ezra Bey," Mahommed said. The man drooped
beside him.

David caught a tin cup from a shelf, poured some liquor into it, and held
it to the lips of the fainting man. "Drink," he said. The Arab drank
greedily, and, when he had finished, gave a long sigh of satisfaction.
"Let him sit," David added.

When the man was seated on a sheepskin, the huge Mahommed squatting
behind like a sentinel, David questioned him. "What is thy name--thy
news?" he asked in Arabic.

"I am called Feroog. I come from Ebn Ezra Bey, to whom be peace!" he
answered. "Thy messenger, Saadat, behold he died of hunger and thirst,
and his work became mine. Ebn Ezra Bey came by the river. . . ."
"He is near?" asked David impatiently.

"He is twenty miles away."

"Thou camest by the desert?"

"By the desert, Saadat, as Ebn Ezra effendi comes."

"By the desert! But thou saidst he came by the river."

"Saadat, yonder, forty miles from where we are, the river makes a great
curve. There the effendi landed in the night with four hundred men to
march hither. But he commanded that the boats should come on slowly and
receive the attack in the river, while he came in from the desert."