So delighted and interested was the audience that they paid little heed to a mounted camel-man who trotted swiftly between the palm trunks.

All might have been well had not Fardet, carried away by his own success, tried to repeat his trick once more, with the result that the date fell out of his palm, and the deception stood revealed.

In vain he tried to pass on at once to another of his little stock.

The Moolah said something, and an Arab struck Fardet across the shoulders with the thick shaft of his spear.
"We have had enough child's play," said the angry priest.

"Are we men or babes, that you should try to impose upon us in this manner?
Here is the cross and the Koran--which shall it be ?" Fardet looked helplessly round at his companions.
"I can do no more; you asked for five minutes.