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In this occupation, Milhem, coming forth from council with the chief of the colonists, found him at length.

“Hail, O tamer of wild beasts!” he laughed. “It is as if they would swallow thee whole, their mouths are so wide open. It is too hot for thee to sit out longer. Come now into my tent—or return to the house of our friend, the Guardian of the Frontier. By Allah, I must thank thee for his friendship. It is a great debt I owe thee, for he could have done me endless mischief.”

“By my gun, he is a devil, that brother of thine!” said Hassan, as they sauntered back through the town. “With one blink of his eyes he constructed a plan whereby we may obtain a stud of the best horses at the lowest price ever known. But that is a secret.”

Shems-ud-dìn lacked curiosity. He was thinking how to improve the minds of those Muslims, so hungry for instruction.

In the days which followed, he delivered many discourses in the little tumble-down mosque, and up on the open hillside. He came to love the place and its inhabitants, and could not sympathize with Milhem, whose lips dropped curses on the entire country.