‘Shedad, son of Amroo,’ exclaimed one of the Bedouins, ‘what! have you captured an harem?’ For he beheld dromedaries and veiled women. The great Sheikh came forth from his pavilion and sniffed the morning air; a dignified smile played over his benignant features, and once he smoothed his venerable beard. ‘My son-in-law is a true son of Israel,’ he murmured complacently to himself. ‘He will trust his gold only to his own blood.’ The caravan wound about the plain, then crossed the stream at the accustomed ford, and approached the amphitheatre. The horsemen halted, some dismounted, the dromedaries knelt down, Baroni assisted one of the riders from her seat; the great Sheikh advanced and said, ‘Welcome in the name of God! welcome with a thousand blessings!’ ‘I come in the name of God; I come with a thousand blessings,’ replied the lady. ‘And with a thousand something else,’ thought Amalek to himself; but the Arabs are so polished that they never make unnecessary allusions to business. ‘Had I thought the Queen of Sheba was going to pay me a visit,’ said the great Sheikh, ‘I would have brought the pavilion of Miriam. How is the Rose of Sharon?’ he continued, as he ushered Eva into his tent. ‘How is the son of my heart; how is Besso, more generous than a thousand kings?’ ‘Speak not of the son of thy heart,’ said Eva, seating herself on the divan. ‘Speak not of Besso, the generous and the good, for his head is strewn with ashes, and his mouth is full of sand.’ ‘What is this?’ thought Amalek. ‘Besso is not ill, or his daughter would not be here. This arrow flies not straight. Does he want to scrape my piastres? These sons of Israel that dwell in cities will mix their pens with our spears. I will be obstinate as an Azafeer camel.’ Slaves now entered, bringing coffee and bread, the Sheikh asking questions as they ate, as to the time Eva quitted Jerusalem, her halting-places in the desert, whether she had met with any tribes; then he offered to his granddaughter his own chibouque, which she took with ceremony, and instantly returned, while they brought her aromatic nargileh. Eva scanned the imperturbable countenance of her grandfather: calm, polite, benignant, she knew the great Sheikh too well to suppose for a moment that its superficial expression was any indication of his innermost purpose. Suddenly she said, in a somewhat careless tone, ‘And why is the Lord of the Syrian pastures in this wilderness, that has been so long accursed?’ The great Sheikh took his pipe from his mouth, and then slowly sent forth its smoke through his nostrils, a feat of which he was proud. Then he placidly replied: ‘For the same reason that the man named Baroni made a visit to El Khuds.’ ‘The man named Baroni came to demand succour for his lord, who is your prisoner.’ ‘And also to obtain two millions of piastres,’ added Amalek. ‘Two millions of piastres! Why not at once ask for the throne of Solomon?’