"Now tell me," said Yusuf, "where we halt to-night, for we appear to be going the road I came?"
"True," said Ayoub, "we stop at the wells where the Cafila was plundered. That was a clever foray of Ali el Bezz, he brought in a fine booty without any loss; I wish he were with us, for, excepting Sidi Hamed, there is not a better head, or a surer hand on an expedition, between this and El Yemen."
The sun was casting its level rays against the Eastern sky when they reached the rocks, the scene of the late attack. Here they all bivouacked under the spangled canopy; there were two or three tents for the chief and some of the sheiks; of these one was allotted to Yusuf and his escort. After the horses were watered and picketed, Ayoub was sent for to the chief's tent, and returned with an Arab, carrying jars of milk, butter, dates, barley-cakes, and dried ostrich flesh, in strips.
"The chief sends you this poor supper," said Ayoub; "I told him flesh was not lawful for you if you did not kill it; so here are two fowls, you kill them according to your custom, and they are lawful to us; my uncle's son here will cook them; we mount with the moon's rising."
The night was calm, and the fires were beginning to blaze around as the Arabs collected in groups to cook their evening meal. Beyond the hum of a multitude there was very little noise, and as Yusuf and his host sat by their fire, in front of their tent, Yusuf reminded him of his promise to recount his adventures in Teradant.
"Oh, Sheik!" he said, "your adventures are like the Thousand and One Nights, when a man has heard one, lo, he asks for another."
"Bismillah!" said Ayoub, nothing loth to recount his exploits. "As you say I have seen things; let me recollect, it was when I was employed with the men of my tribe plundering the caravans and traders that frequented the market of Teradant with produce and merchandise; for all who did not pay us toll were not spared; have we not a right to custom from goods passing our territories as well as the Sultan? and those who did not pay for protection made no profit by their ventures. So, you see, I had friends in the town who protected me for a share of the booty, and who would not have been long on God's earth had they dared to betray us; thus, O friend, I was in the habit of entering the town in disguise to obtain intelligence of the movements of the merchants. One of our friends kept a kebab-shop, where the sons of the town collected of an evening to eat kebabs, and drink sherbet, and hear the news; he made his force-meat of sheep's heads, and these when clean boiled were piled up at the end of the room. I have seen there several thousands; we formed a recess behind these with boards, communicating with the back room by a small door; and here have I often been cooped up watching the guests, and hearing all their plans and the value of their goods when they little thought the sheep's skulls had eyes in them. Another was a grain-merchant, and there I have been buried in barley up to my neck, with a fanega measure with a hole in it over my head, and heard who was going with money to the douars to buy grain. And, behold, were they not astonished when Sheik Ayoub met them on the Sahel with the salutation of peace, and asked one for the twenty pieces of gold that were in his camel's saddle, and another for the three hundred ducats sewn up in the right sleeve of his djilabea?
"One day riding with some of my band, a few miles from the town, I met a horseman in a fine hayk, and green velvet coat.
"'Peace to you, O Abdallah,' said I, 'where is my lord going?'
"'To you, peace,' said he; 'I go to the douar to buy a sheep.'