"Something has happened--what is it ?...
Come, many things have happened before.

This can be no worse.

Do thee speak," he urged gently.
"Saadat," said Nahoum, as though under the stress of feeling, "the cotton-mills at Tashah and Mini are gone--burned to the ground." For a moment David looked at him without sight in his eyes, and his face grew very pale.

"Excellency, all in one night, the besom of destruction was abroad," he heard Nahoum say, as though from great depths below him.
He slowly turned his head to look at Lacey.

"Is this true ?" he asked at last in an unsteady voice.