"But presently I saw that they were whispering together; and I guessed what they were planning—to murder me in the night-time and steal away. Against this danger also, therefore, I took precaution.
"'Voyons!' I said. 'You have the souls of slaves, and like slaves shall you be treated. This night, and every night, shall you sleep bound, so that you may not run away.'
"But, to my amazement, my proposal did not make them angry.
"'So be it,' they said. 'For then will Senussi-el-Mahdi know that we are indeed our master's slaves, and that it is our master alone who is accountable and worthy to be put to death.'
"So I tied them up—none the less securely because they had professed themselves willing to be tied—and, so to say, drove my guides before me towards the Oasis of Jarabub.
"Once or twice parties of Arabs, springing, as it seemed, out of the yellow sand, came upon me in the early morning, and bade me turn back to the place that I had come from.
"'It is the will of Senussi-el-Mahdi,' they explained, 'and he cares but little whether we send thee back or slay thee where thou standest. Turn back, therefore, dog of a Christian, lest a worse thing befall thee.'
"No doubt they would have killed me without parley, if they had not seen that I was armed and could retaliate. But I had my rifle in my hands and two revolvers in my belt, so that they listened to me, or, rather, to my guide Abdullah, who interpreted.'
"'Nay, but we come as friends,' Abdullah said, 'and our master bears a letter for Senussi-el-Mahdi from a true son of the Prophet in a distant land.'
"'Son of a dog, thou liest!' said the savage and discourteous Arab.