Iskender murmured that he still had doubts. The angry glances of the girl Nesibeh made him shame-faced.

"Show me thy doubts that I may straight resolve them."

Iskender was muttering that he must think them out, that they were not yet quite clear in his mind, when Nesibeh cried from the inner room:

"Hear him not, O my father! The low dog is mocking thee. Force him to be baptized, or drive him forth!"

"Silence, shameless one!" the priest cried sternly; nevertheless he took her suggestion and, turning to Iskender, whose brow was throbbing painfully, inquired: "Hast thou one good reason to desire delay?"

"Yes, O our father!" Iskender blurted out the truth at last. "I know not how my patron would regard it. On him I depend entirely for the present. I have heard him scoff at all who change the faith that they were born in. Wait a little, I beseech thee, until he is gone!"

"Is that in truth all?" replied Mitri, fully satisfied. "The right is with thee. We must wait awhile. But Allah grant thou die not in the interval."

CHAPTER XVI

The season recommended by Elias as most favourable for their adventure now drew near. Each steamer that touched at the port disgorged a little crowd of travellers. The Emir being no longer alone in the hotel, his radiance suffered eclipse. Other Franks of distinction came and went continually; dragomans, splendidly attired, hung about the entrance, tugging at their moustachios, tapping their riding-boots with silver-mounted whips, and spitting superbly, as became men whose special province it was to order the lords of gold about like dogs.

Merchants and pedlars, as many as could get permission from the sons of Musa, spread out their wares on the floor of the hall, and smiled allurement on the visitors. The servants of Cook and other Powers of Europe and America strutted about and gave command like princes.

Iskender, for his footing in the house, helped the servants wherever an extra hand was required, and in that way learnt to wait at table, to polish boots and brush clothes, and acquired some inkling of the art of cooking. The positive need of these attainments for the coming journey made him quick to learn. The Emir himself admired his general usefulness, and the sons of Musa paid him money for his services. As a result of all this bustle there were fewer visits to the house of Mitri, while the book and paint-box were perforce laid by.

The excitement of Elias grew with every day. He never tired of asking whether all was ready, of reminding Iskender of the need of this or that small comfort, and urging him to fix a date for their departure.

Indeed his eagerness became a visible disorder, and, seeing him mingle freely with the other dragomans, Iskender went in hourly fear of indiscretions. One noon when, after a spell of work in the hot kitchen, he had rushed to the outer door to breath the air, he fell upon a group of persons splendidly arrayed, who welcomed his appearance with unfriendly glee. Yuhanna Mahbub, the bully, seized his arm, and threatened him with his whip not altogether playfully.

"Confess the truth!" he commanded, with his cruel grin. "Thy journey with the Emir is not for pastime. Thou hast a secret; it is useless to deny it, for we know the fact from thy partner Elias. I, with others of thy friends, resent this great preferment of Elias. Reveal thy secret now immediately, and if it is of worth, I too will go with thee."

"What words are these?" Iskender cried out in extreme amazement. "A secret! I possess a secret! It is some lying fable of that mad Elias!"

"That, Allah knows, is possible," put in a bystander. "Elias is the very prince of fable-mongers."

Yuhanna still kept grinning in Iskender's face.

"Wilt thou swear by the Blessed Sacrament that thou knowest nothing of the whereabouts of any treasure?"

"Art mad? How should I know of any treasure?"

"Swear by the Blessed Sacrament! Nought else will serve; and if hereafter it should prove that thou art perjured, I will beat thy filthy soul from out thy body."

"By the Blessed Sacrament I swear!" replied Iskender.

"That is well!" Yuhanna curled his long moustachios. "Then why does Elias refuse every other engagement? It is not likely thy Emir will pay him much."

"By the same pledge I know not! Ask the man himself!"

"Thou seest, 'Hanna, as I told thee, it is all a lie," laughed a bystander, the same who had before spoken.

Iskender escaped from them, bearing the conscience of a perjured wretch. He called Allah Most High to witness how the sin was forced on him. It was some comfort to reflect that he was still technically a Protestant, so might be taken to have sworn by the sacrament of that sect which he knew to be without Divine significance. But all the same his crime was very heinous.

Early in the morning following this grave event, Iskender was engaged in sweeping out the entrance-hall, when his uncle strode in out of the sunlight, of which he seemed an offshoot in his splendour of apparel.

More respectable than ever through pride in the command of a company of high-born English bent on sight-seeing, he addressed his nephew from the height of condescension:

"O son of my brother, I start this day upon a journey of ten days with my party, and would say a word to thee before I go. Elias tells me that both thou and he propose to ride forth with the young khawajah, and show him something of the land. That is well. Elias, though sometimes foolish, has experience; and I have told him to instruct thee fully in our business. Go not too far, for travel in wild places is too arduous for one so young; and Elias has little acquaintance with the desert ways, and that little disastrous, he and all his party having been captured and held to ransom by the Bedu, because he forgot to pay the tribes their proper dues. Be cautious and observant. In sh' Allah we shall all return in safety."

"In sh' Allah!" echoed Iskender in great astonishment; for it had that minute occurred to him that he had no real knowledge of the whereabouts of the place to which he had undertaken to conduct his patron, beyond what Elias had implied, that it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of Wady Musa. His first sentiment on the discovery was one of thankfulness, because he had not sworn falsely in his oath to Yuhanna.

His next was one of self-abas.e.m.e.nt before Allah. Was not His mercy boundless, like His power? During the few days which remained before the start, he spent much time in prayer, and offered votive candles to be burnt in Mitri's little church beneath the ilex-tree. Why should he not find his way to the Valley of Gold, by the blessing of the All Powerful? Did not his vision of the place, and the strange concatenation of chances which had led him on to the adventure, seem to indicate that he was destined to find it? Even if he failed, the Emir, he told himself, would have had a pleasant outing, and could not in the nature of things be very angry. Thus he lulled his fears.

The one thing left to trouble him was the adherence of Elias, and he tried by every means to throw him off.

"We cannot afford a horse for thee," he told the dragoman. "Allah knows I have enough to do to make the money suffice for the bare necessaries."

"What did I tell thee?" said Elias cheerfully. "When thou hast hired a cook and baggage animals, I know, by Allah, there is nothing left. No matter, I will hire a horse on my own account."

Iskender next informed his friend in confidence that there was no real intention of going to the Valley of the Kings. It was all a joke between himself and the Emir.

"Ha, wouldst thou leave me out?" exclaimed Elias, with a laugh. "No, no, my soul. I am not to be gulled so easily!"

Iskender despaired of ever getting rid of him, when Elias himself unexpectedly afforded him the opportunity. Two days before the start, the Emir asked for an account of the arrangements, and Iskender gave it, in the presence of Elias. His Honour was to ride the horse which he had lately bought; Elias would provide his own. Iskender himself would act as cook and waiter and his Honour's body-servant, and also a.s.sist in his functions the single muleteer, who provided three mules and one horse. A good-sized tent, a little the worse for wear, a collapsible bed, a table, a chair, and cooking utensils completed an outfit of which the whole cost amounted to little more than half the sum which the Frank had a.s.signed as a limit.

The Emir was greatly pleased; not so Elias. When Iskender had made an end, the dragoman flung up his hands.

"That only!" he cried to heaven; "and for an Emir, a great one, like our friend here!"

It was a crime unheard of, an abomination! Their beloved would die of discomfort in a single night. No, that should never be, so long as he (Elias) enjoyed life and health, with some slight credit among honest people. He would himself provide two upright men, a cook and a waiter, at his own expense. He knew them well. They had retired from business, but they loved him dearly and would come forward willingly, he felt sure, to save so excellent a prince from vile indignity.

This outpour of his indignation was addressed to Iskender in fierce Arabic. When his proposal was translated, the Emir pooh-poohed it, declaring Iskender's arrangement to be all he could desire. Elias then, in a frenzy, fell down at his feet, imploring him with tears to reconsider.

"Beeble'll think we're some common fellows and be rude to us," he moaned. "Neffer mind the exbense, sir; that not matter a blow. These beeble friends o' mine, they come for nothin' 't all. You gif them what you dam' blease!"

His agony was terrible to witness. Iskender had the feelings of a murderer as he looked on. Their patron stroked his small moustache and smiled uneasily.

"You not go like that, sir!" pursued Elias, starting up. "It is a shame for you! I go to the consul now direc'ly; make him a-stob you!

Now I'm off! My friends of which I sbeak lif long way off; but I be back with them in two days, the time you start. Bromise to wait till then! All right! Ta-ta!" With a final casting-up of hands to heaven, the enthusiast was gone.

"We had better start at once, or he'll spoil everything," said the Englishman, when he recovered from his astonishment. It was precisely what his henchman had been thinking. By no word had they pledged themselves to abide his return.

Iskender went at once to hasten the preparations. But their muleteer proved sulky on the sudden change of plans; and it was only as the result of a dispute which lasted the whole afternoon that Iskender wrung from him an a.s.surance that all would be ready when the sun next rose.

CHAPTER XVII

Iskender, having roused his dear Emir, went out to inspect the train.

It was then some half-hour later than the time appointed; yet neither mules nor man were in sight, only the horse of the Emir, with its neat leather saddle and bridle, was being led up and down before the hotel by a bare-legged boy. In a rage Iskender hastened to the khan whence at the recommendation of Elias he had hired his muleteer. There his reproaches caused extreme amazement. The man, he was told, had received his order as for the following day. He was not on the premises, and his house was some way off.