knaves, or even one such, and I, thus defenceless and feeble! Such is not
the work that wise masters confide to fierce slaves. But that is the
least of the reasons which exclude them from my choice, and fix my choice
of assistant on you. Do you forget what I told you of the danger which
the Dervish declared no bribe I could offer could tempt him a second time
to brave?"

"I remember now; those words had passed away from my mind."

"And because they had passed away from your mind, I chose you for my
comrade. I need a man by whom danger is scorned."

"But in the process of which you tell me I see no possible danger unless
the ingredients you mix in your caldron have poisonous fumes."

"It is not that. The ingredients I use are not poisons."

"What other danger, except you dread your own Eastern slaves? But, if so,
why lead them to these solitudes; and, if so, why not bid me be armed?"

"The Eastern slaves, fulfilling my commands, wait for my summons where
their eyes cannot see what we do. The danger is of a kind in which the
boldest son of the East would be more craven, perhaps, than the daintiest
Sybarite of Europe, who would shrink from a panther and laugh at a ghost.
In the creed of the Dervish, and of all who adventure into that realm of
nature which is closed to philosophy and open to magic, there are races in
the magnitude of space unseen as animalcules in the world of a drop. For
the tribes of the drop, science has its microscope. Of the host of yon
azure Infinite magic gains sight, and through them gains command over
fluid conductors that link all the parts of creation. Of these races,