"You would send Stimbol to slay Tarzan of the Apes?"
"Thou guessed aright," admitted Ibn Jad.
"But how wilt that relieve us of responsibility? He wilt have been slain by thy order in thine own menzil," objected Tollog.
"Wait! I shall not command the one Nasrany to slay the other; I shall but suggest it, and when it is done I shall be filled with rage and horror that this murder hath been done in my menzil. And to prove my good faith I shall order that the murderer be put to death in punishment for his crime. Thus we shall be rid of two unbelieving dogs and at the same time be able to convince the Waziri that we were indeed the friends of their sheykh, for we shall mourn him with loud lamentations—when the Waziri shall have arrived."
"Allah be praised for such a brother!" exclaimed Tollog, enraptured.
"Go thou now, at once, and summon the Nasrany Stimbol," directed Ibn Jad. "Send him to me alone, and after I have spoken with him and he hath departed upon his errand come thee back to my beyt."
Ateja trembled upon her sleeping mat, while the silent figure crouching outside the sheik's tent arose after Tollog had departed and disappeared in the darkness of the night.
Hastily summoned from the beyt of Fahd, Stimbol, cautioned to stealth by Tollog, moved silently through the darkness to the mukaad of the sheik, where he found Ibn Jad awaiting him.
"Sit, Nasrany," invited the Beduin.
"What in hell do you want of me this time of night?" demanded Stimbol.