"'This time you shall not escape from me,' he declared, and the ride was continued for three days and three nights before we came to a final halt.
"I found myself in Uargla, that terrible city in whose streets blood flows in streams. I was brought into a solid tower of Kiobeh, and the fearful attendants, who saw in me a priestess of Allah, again surrounded me.
"At first I refused all food, wishing to starve to death, but I laid aside this idea, as I had a presentiment that I would still be of some service to my friend. Two days later I heard a terrible noise in the street, and hastening to the grated window of my cell, gazed out.
"I saw a sight which froze my blood with horror. Dark forms clad in long brown cloaks carried a bier made of twigs of trees, and on it, pale, bleeding, and with closed eyes, lay my protector, Captain Joliette.
"I shook my prison bars; I wanted to get out and die with my friend. In vain; the grating did not shake or give way. At this instant I felt myself pulled back, and the man who had dared to make love to me stood before me.
"'Medje,' he said, 'the Frenchman who stole you is in our hands.'
"'And you will kill him, coward,' I cried.
"'No, not yet,' he replied with a smile; 'look!'
"I did so, and saw the captain carried on the bier through the low iron gate.
"'They will put this Christian, as you call him, in a dark cell and keep him there month after month until he longs for death.'