Then he left, and made his way back to the tent of Mohammed Beyd.
As these thoughts passed through his mind he entered the tent where Mohammed Beyd sat cross-legged upon a rug, smoking.
"It is well," said Mohammed Beyd, blowing a little puff of blue smoke straight out before him.
"And if he were dead?" asked the Belgian, determined to lead up to the truth, and attempt to bribe Mohammed Beyd into his service.
The evil eyes narrowed, a vicious, thin-lipped smile tortured the villainous face, as Mohammed Beyd grinned knowingly into the face of the Belgian.
The complacency with which he accepted the death of his chief lifted a considerable burden of apprehension from the shoulders of Achmet Zek's assassin; but his demand for a share of the jewels boded ill for Werper when Mohammed Beyd should have learned that the precious stones were no longer in the Belgian's possession.
His one hope seemed, then, to lie in fostering Mohammed Beyd's belief that the jewels were still in his possession, and depend upon the accidents of the future to open an avenue of escape.
"The serpent is less wise than thou, Werper," said Mohammed Beyd with a smile.
If either the girl or Mohammed Beyd could have guessed what passed in the mind of the man which each thought a friend and ally, the apparent harmony of the little company would have been rudely disturbed.
Then in the church, where but a few hours before the fallen Emperor had knelt and prayed to Christ, the Sultan bowed himself in thanks and praise to Allah and
Mohammed.
In 1854 a Marabout of the Senegalese Fouta, Al-Hadji by name, declaring himself to be inspired like
Mohammed, stirred up all the tribes to war against the infidels--that is to say, against the Europeans.
In boyhood I longed to be an Arab of the desert and have a beautiful mare, and call her Selim or Benjamin or
Mohammed, and feed her with my own hands, and let her come into the tent, and teach her to caress me and look fondly upon me with her great tender eyes; and I wished that a stranger might come at such a time and offer me a hundred thousand dollars for her, so that I could do like the other Arabs--hesitate, yearn for the money, but overcome by my love for my mare, at last say, "Part with thee, my beautiful one!
It's Mohammedan in form now, but I shouldn't wonder if the tale is a long way older than
Mohammed. It's all about somebody they call the Sultan Aladdin, not our friend of the lamp, of course, but rather like him in having to do with genii or giants or something of that sort.
The henchmen of the purveyor did not know their
Mohammed; and they thought they were ardent in carrying out their own conception.
What do I want better than to be the wife of
Mohammed?"