"Tell the Hakim's friend that if he would learn to ride as we do, with
the stirrups short, so that he could get a better hold of the saddle, he
would be as fine a horseman as ever lived."
Frank nodded and smiled, and signed that he was about to mount.
"Ask the Hakim's friend to enter and partake of such poor fare as I can
give," protested the Emir; and upon the words being interpreted Frank
shook his head, but pointed to his lips, signifying that he would drink.
The Emir clapped his hands, and as Frank turned he saw his brother
passing out of sight, while from the house a couple of slaves came
quickly, bearing brass vessels and cups.
The long, cool draught of some refreshing beverage was welcome to
Frank's parched throat, but he kept up the set smile upon his
countenance, in spite of the agonising mental torture from which he
suffered, and it was with a sigh of relief that at last he rode away,
followed by a friendly shout from the party in the court, and reached
the cool, darkened rooms of the Emir's place feeling more dead than
alive.
"Well," asked his friends in a breath, as he threw himself upon the
rug-covered angareb in his room, "did you succeed?"
"Ask Ibrahim," he said. "I hardly dare to hope."
They turned to the old Sheikh, who made a gesture with his hands.
"Excellencies," he said, "I stood there with a knife as it were held at
my throat all that dreadful time; but it was wonderful. How could he do
it--how could he act like that?"
"Who can say?" said Frank, as his friends turned questioning eyes
towards him. "I can't talk now; I feel weak as a child. I only know I
could not do it again to save my life."
"But we are in agony to know," said the doctor. "Pray try and tell us
something of your plans."
The appeal gave the young man strength, and he told all that had passed.
"But what will follow?" said the professor, whose voice trembled from
the excitement he suffered. "Will Harry--can he carry out your plan?"
"Yes," said the doctor. "He is as firm when put to the test as Frank
here."
"Ah!" groaned Frank; "firm? I am as weak as water now. I am trembling
with the horrible thought that the chief saw through the subterfuge, for
he smiled cruelly; and if he did--what of poor Harry's life? I shall
have slain him by what I did, for they have no mercy on an escaping
slave."