In his excitement as the young men rode on knee to knee, their beautiful Arab steeds keeping as close as a pair of well-broken carriage horses in a western city, Frank pointed ahead again in the direction of the dervish band; but the young Emir only nodded and laughed, as he gave his sword a wave and rode on. "He is mad with excitement," thought Frank. "We can never do that again. They nearly fill the street from house to house." Then a wild, strange thought flashed through his brain, as he gazed in those brief moments straight at the dervishes, and saw their wild eyes clearer and clearer at every bound made by his steed--a thought telling plainly of the fate he expected, and which he took to be unavoidable now. "Will poor old Hal ever know that I came to save him, and that I died like this?" As this thought came and seemed to make him feel more ready for the coming shock delivered by those two against the dense body of horsemen ahead, the cause of the excitement before them began to dawn upon the dervish band. There was a display of excitement, men rising in their stirrups and waving their spears, as they saw men of their own tribe in pursuit of the pair, though far behind, and the next minute one who seemed to be the leader drew and waved his sword, the result of the movement being that the band opened out a little more, so that their front extended from house to house, and they began to drive back all the people who were in the street. The fugitives were now not fifty paces from the walking dervish front, and in less than a minute they would have been right upon them; but in a flash Frank saw the meaning of his comrade's movement, for he turned towards him, laughing, waved his sword to the right, and the next moment the two horses swerved round and darted down a narrow way little wider than a court, and tore on in obedience to the urging from their riders' heels, chased too now by fresh pursuers, whose yells rang out as if they were a vast pack of human hounds--as indeed they were, and as bloodthirsty; but they were at this disadvantage: everything about them was new, while to the fugitives, especially to one, the maze of streets was familiar, and their horses were quite at home.