As the visitor neared the holy man, who chanted on monotonously, he was suddenly startled to hear between the long-drawn syllables the quick words in Arabic: "Beware, Saadat! See, I am Mahommed Hassan, thy servant! At midnight they surround Kaid's palace--Achmet and Higli--and kill the Prince Pasha.

Return, Saadat.

Harrik will kill thee." David made no sign, but with a swift word to the faithful Mahommed Hassan, passed on, and was presently admitted to the palace.

As the doors closed behind him, he would hear the voice of the holy man still chanting: "Waladalleen--Ameen-Ameen! Waladalleen--Ameen!" The voice followed him, fainter and fainter, as he passed through the great bare corridors with the thick carpets on which the footsteps made no sound, until it came, soft and undefined, as it were from a great distance.

Then suddenly there fell upon him a sense of the peril of his enterprise.