"Your name?" demanded the captain. "Yusuf, may you live for ever," replied Burnet. "What are you? Why are you wandering here alone?" "Ahi! I am an ass-head; that giant there says so, and so did my master, Firouz Ali." "The barber of Bagdad!" "Truly he is a barber, and of Bagdad; and he has brushes and sharp knives and soap, and he pours water on the soap----" "This must be that witless apprentice of the barber's," the captain interrupted, "of whom they tell that he filled the mouth of Bukkad Bey with soap." "Mashallah! was it not well done?" cried Burnet, with a foolish smile. "It was like cream in a cup of raspberries." "The boy is a fool," said the captain. "You left Firouz Ali: what are you doing here?" "Truly I am gazing at the sun, noble effendi," said Burnet innocently, fixing his eyes on the officer's round fat face. "My father says my face is the moon, and he wants to see it." He took out the Arabic note, unfolded it, and offered it to the captain, who however pushed it away impatiently. "Answer my question: what have you done since you left the barber?" "Eaten and drunk and slept, and suffered many stripes at the hands of one Ibrahim, a driver of camels. It is true I am an ass-head, for he too called me so, and having brought me to the town yonder, he sent me away; and I am even now going to my home in the Beni Lam country to feed the goats. It is all I am fit for." The captain looked him up and down. "He is a fool, but his limbs are sound," he said. "He is good enough for the infantry. Take him up behind you again, Hassan. We will see what they make of him in Bagdad." The squadron moved off at an easy trot. Burnet was alarmed at the turn things had taken. He had little doubt that Firouz Ali would find some means of preventing his enlistment in the army; but the delay would prevent his meeting with Captain Ellingford at the _tell_ and render it impossible for him to convey his information to headquarters, at any rate for some time to come. Meanwhile the young chief Rejeb's tribe was in danger of annihilation. However, there was no help for it. Bagdad was a long way off, and before they got there he might find a means of escaping.