"You are too young to be either of these great men.—Allah! Allah! Turn and strike, sons of the Prophet! down with the dogs!"
His followers whispered to the Khalifa.
As when rude Boreas, suddenly remembering that he is due in another portion of the globe, ceases abruptly to beat the tortured sea into foam, and a beauteous calm overspreads the waters of the storm-tossed ocean, so suddenly the countenance of the Khalifa changed from rage and defiance to an expression of timorous incredulity.
"Impossible!" he muttered—"so young, and so great a general!"
"Undoubtedly it is Bimbashi Jones!" said an emir.
Jones heard him quite distinctly.
"Yes, I am Bimbashi Jones," he said; "yield, Abdullah; there is no other course. Yield or perish!"
"You will not cut off my right hand and ear?" asked the Khalifa.
"Certainly not, richly though you deserve it," said Jones.
"Nor my left?" added the Khalifa quickly, glancing cunningly in Jones's face.