"By Allah! but you are wonderful, you English girl. I do not understand you. I have had women here screaming, fighting, fainting, begging for mercy upon their knees. Pah! they sickened me, but you--well! I will go and order the coffee, not wishing to bring a slave into your presence, and give orders also, Mademoiselle, that no matter _what_ noise may be heard I must on no account be disturbed! And death by knife, or whip, or water, is the _ordinary_ punishment for those who disobey!" Jill blew a smoke ring through another and smiled. "It's no good ordering coffee because I shan't drink it!" "You _will_ drink it," was the sharp reply. "Will you take a bet?" was the ready answer. For a moment the man who was becoming more and more amazed stared in silence and then laughed softly as the absurdity of the situation struck him. "Certainly I will, for do not we orientals love a seeming hazard? So although I take an unfair advantage of you I will lay this emerald ring engraven with my name against one kiss from your red mouth that within the half of one hour you will have drunk the coffee." And taking the ring from his finger as he spoke he laid it upon a small table beside Jill. CHAPTER X She was sitting with her hands crossed on her lap when he returned, carrying a small tray bearing two cups filled with coffee. "You have been a very long time," she remarked casually. "An especially delicious coffee had to be prepared for Mademoiselle, and strict orders given that we were not to be disturbed until I give the signal. Also that this quarter of the house, which is mine, is to be cleared absolutely of all inhabitants. Therefore shall we be at peace even until this time to-morrow if I make no sign. Also to emphasise my orders, I ordered that a certain person be bastinadoed. She sickens me with her outpourings of love, and was loitering about this door seeking doubtlessly to enter. When she does she will most certainly not enter upon her feet if my orders have been strictly carried out." And even as he spoke a distant piercing scream, followed by another, and yet another, rent the air, causing Jill's mouth to shut like a steel trap, and her eyes to blaze like fires. "_That_ is what happens when I am _disobeyed_, Mademoiselle! Here is your coffee, _drink it_!" The tone was brutal, and Jill meekly put out her hand to take the little porcelain and silver trifle the man was bringing to her, laying it beside the emerald ring upon the table as he turned to fetch his own cup. "Drop that!" Jill had not raised her voice, but a certain unmistakable quality in it caused the man to wheel sharply. He stared in blank amazement for a fleeting second, and then, still carefully holding the cup, backed hastily and sideways out of the direct range of a very small but very useful-looking revolver in Jill's right hand.