blankets by Mohammed Beyd were the first to suggest going to the
tent of the prisoner. It occurred to them that possibly the woman
had successfully defended herself against their leader.

Werper heard the men approaching. To be apprehended as the slayer
of Mohammed Beyd would be equivalent to a sentence of immediate
death. The fierce and brutal raiders would tear to pieces a
Christian who had dared spill the blood of their leader. He must
find some excuse to delay the finding of Mohammed Beyd's dead body.

Returning his revolver to its holster, he walked quickly to the
entrance of the tent. Parting the flaps he stepped out and confronted
the men, who were rapidly approaching. Somehow he found within him
the necessary bravado to force a smile to his lips, as he held up
his hand to bar their farther progress.

"The woman resisted," he said, "and Mohammed Beyd was forced to
shoot her. She is not dead--only slightly wounded. You may go
back to your blankets. Mohammed Beyd and I will look after the
prisoner;" then he turned and re-entered the tent, and the raiders,
satisfied by this explanation, gladly returned to their broken
slumbers.

As he again faced Jane Clayton, Werper found himself animated by
quite different intentions than those which had lured him from his
blankets but a few minutes before. The excitement of his encounter
with Mohammed Beyd, as well as the dangers which he now faced at
the hands of the raiders when morning must inevitably reveal the
truth of what had occurred in the tent of the prisoner that night,
had naturally cooled the hot passion which had dominated him when