"We were in too much of a hurry to do that, Hassan, I'm afraid. Was
there anything remarkable about it?" The Arab looked away over the sea
for a minute--then, as if talking to himself, he answered: "Great is
Allah and his servant Mahomet, and strange the way in which he saved us.
The huge stone which crushed the savages was the same with which they
have destroyed their victims in the hollowed-out mortar in which it
stood! I have once before seen such a stone, and the death to which they
condemned us drew my attention to it as we pushed it down upon them."
"Then," said Denviers, "their strange monarch was not disappointed after
all in his sentence being carried out--only it affected his own
subjects."
"That," said Hassan, "is not an infrequent occurrence in the East; but
so long as the proper number perishes, surely it matters little who
complete it fully."
"A very pleasant view of the case, Hassan," said Denviers; "only we who
live Westward will, I hope, be in no particular hurry to adopt such a
custom; but go and see if you can find out where our berths are, for we
want to turn in." The Arab obeyed, and returned in a few minutes, saying
that he, the unworthy latchet of our shoes, had discovered them.
_From Behind the Speaker's Chair._