Chapter VIII: Part 8

Yezed attempted to speak, but found his tongue paralyzed; he tried to express himself by signs, but his arms and fingers were lame. Gathering all his strength, he threw his frame in the direction in which he had seen Othman depart, and he struck his head against a stone. How did the stone come here? There had been nothing there before. Yezed rose to his feet; there was no smoke to be seen. He thrust out his arms sideways and struck against a wall. There was no wall before. "Allah, great Allah, is not this the hollow where I changed my clothing!" So it was. Why not make a light? It was made, and, lo! there was the sequestered nest, there the armory and the singular wardrobe, there the treasure of the dead brigand, and there the fearful black hole which graciously hid those mysteries he had witnessed. Yezed shook with chill. He felt that it was the dead of night, and had overwhelming feelings to control. What remained of the nightmare as an unescapable reality was horrible to dwell upon. Shall he ever return to the infernal hollow again? No, never! never! Why stay one second longer than necessary in the mouth of hell? Trembling and shivering, Yezed crawled out of the accursed cave, lowered himself to the ground, found the noble El Barak awaiting him patiently, threw his arms around the neck of the faithful brute and lamented bitterly. The horse neighed gently, as though he, too, understood his new master's great sorrow.

Seated in the saddle, Yezed allowed the intelligent animal to take its own course, and was shortly before daybreak landed before his mother's habitation. There was weeping and wailing in the widowed house. Yezed decided to divulge the whole truth to his friendly master, the muezzin. The holy man shuddered as he listened to his pupil's tale, but advised secrecy, lest widow and orphan be thrown into prison as accessories to the numerous crimes of the guilty Othman. He took great care, however, to inform himself about the location of the interesting cave, and was ere long in a position to turn his back upon the humble villagers of Engedi, not without inducing the widow and her son to follow him to a happier place.

Transcriber's Note

Repeated half titles have been deleted.

This book contains archaic spelling, e.g. meed meaning reward, targe meaning shield. There are also some variations in spelling, e.g. Allah akbar and Allah achbar both appear. Further, both American and British spelling is used, including appearances of shriveled and shrivelled, revelers and revellers, and marvelous and marvellous. In all cases, these are preserved as printed.

Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. Hyphenation has been made consistent.

The following have been considered as printer errors, and amended:

Page 23--in amended to is--The slave-Sultan is not within
these black reaches, ...

Page 37, footnote 2--24 amended to 22--... Al Zameri cries
out to his rescuer (page 22) ...

Page 168, footnote 8--מלאן amended to מלאג and סנדלפןי amended
to סנדלפין--... שמו סנדלפין החיות אצל מגיע וראשו בארץ עומד אחד מלאג ...

Page 210--seried amended to serried--... was made up of a
serried division ...

Page 220--were amended to where--Menahem was where he wished
to be, ...

Page 220--Iman amended to Imam--... within the boundaries of
his dominion the Imam ...

Page 266--ot amended to of--Each division of troops had its
elephantine accompaniment, ...

Page 279--world-renowed amended to world-renowned--...
whispered Persia's world-renowned hero.

Page 308--briliiant amended to brilliant--... an arched
space, brilliant with dazzling light.

Page 309--licure amended to ligure--... and a variety of the
jasper and the ligure, ...

Page 315--sycthe amended to scythe--... the Christians fell
as grass struck by the scythe.

Page 319--Jannet amended to Jannat--It is a gazelle from
Jannat al Ferdaws, ...

Page 324--Emil-al-Mumemin amended to Emir-al-Mumemin--...
Omeyya presented himself before the Emir-al-Mumemin ...

Page 332--excep amended to except--... except this fiery
steed _El Barak_, ...

Page 343--Yedez amended to Yezed--... and told Yezed to do as
he did.

Page 348--eel amended to feel--... did Yezed feel the
fighting lust ...

The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page. Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so they are not in the middle of a paragraph.