CHAPTER THREE.
For upwards of forty years Abdulla had walked in the way of his Lord.
Son of the rich Syed Selim bin Sali, the great Mohammedan trader of the Straits, he went forth at the age of seventeen on his first commercial expedition, as his father's representative on board a pilgrim ship chartered by the wealthy Arab to convey a crowd of pious Malays to the Holy Shrine.

That was in the days when steam was not in those seas--or, at least, not so much as now.

The voyage was long, and the young man's eyes were opened to the wonders of many lands.

Allah had made it his fate to become a pilgrim very early in life.

This was a great favour of Heaven, and it could not have been bestowed upon a man who prized it more, or who made himself more worthy of it by the unswerving piety of his heart and by the religious solemnity of his demeanour.