"I'll go," said Ishmael, "for above all there must be no bloodshed."
Then old Mahmud, who alone of the persons present in the guest-room seemed to be untouched by the excitement of the moment, turned to Helena and said—
"But is Ishmael the only one for this enterprise, my daughter?"
"He knows every one, and every one knows him," said Helena.
"But he who knows everybody, everybody knows," the old man answered; "not the soldiers merely, but their masters also."
At that Helena's nervousness gathered itself up into a trill of unnatural laughter, and she said, "Nonsense! He can be disguised! The kufiah (headdress) of a Bedouin, covering his head and nearly all his face—what more is wanted?"
"So you are not afraid for him, my daughter?"
"Afraid? I will make the kufiah myself and with my own hands I will put it on."
"Brave heart of woman!" cried Ishmael. "Stronger than the soul of man! It is my duty and I will do it!"
With that he turned to Abdel Kader, who had looked on with his staring eyes, and said—