By Allah, I would sooner be impaled alive.' He paused a moment, swallowing his rage, then added: 'This, however, I will do.

I will summon all the chiefs of all my people--every head of every family--hither to your presence and command them all to witness that the property is yours.

I will make them swear to defend you and your successors in possession of it with their lives if need be, and to leave the obligation as a sacred charge to their descendants.

That, I think, would be sufficient to assure you undisturbed possession if I die, as well I may, of this unheard-of treatment.

And if I live till happier times--that is, to see the downfall of my enemy--then you shall have the Government certificate which the Consul deems of such immense importance.' I now know that the kind of treaty which he thus proposed, laying a solemn charge on all his people--who would have been, of course, my neighbours--to defend my right, would have been worth a good deal more than any legal document in that wild country.