Kahled sat in silence, understanding human nature too well to disturb the boy, and for five minutes neither moved. Then Kanana rose slowly and his voice trembled a little as he replied, "My father, I would have thy fleetest horse, thy blessing, and thy girdle." Kahled the Invincible wore a girdle that was known to every soldier and camp-follower of the army. It was of camel's-skin, soft-tanned and colored with a brilliant Persian dye, which as far away as it could be seen at all, no one could mistake. It was part of a magnificent curtain which once hung in the royal palace of Babylon. It pleased the fancy of the fierce warrior, and he wore it as a girdle till it became his only insignia. There was not a color like it within hundreds of miles at least, and when the people saw it they knew that it was Kahled. "Take what horse thou wilt," replied the general. "I give thee, now, my blessing." Then he hesitated for a moment. Had Kanana asked a hundred camels or a thousand horsemen he would have added, "Take them." As it was, he said, a little doubtfully, "What wouldst thou with my girdle?" In all the direct simplicity which clung to him in spite of everything, Kanana replied: "I would hide it under my coat; I would that it be proclaimed throughout the army that some one has fled to the enemy with the sacred girdle, and that a great reward be offered to him who shall return to Kahled any fragment of it he may find." Without another word, the general unwound the sacred girdle, and Kanana, reverently touching it to his forehead, bound it about him under his sheepskin coat. Kneeling, he received the blessing, and leaving the tent, he selected the best of Kahled's horses and disappeared in the darkness, alone. [Illustration: KNEELING, HE RECEIVED THE BLESSING.] The next morning an oppressive sense of inaction hung about the headquarters. The only order issued accompanied an announcement of the loss of the sacred girdle. Every soldier was commanded to be on the watch for it, to seize and to return at once to Kahled, even the smallest fragment which might be found. For this the fortunate man was promised as many gold coins as, lying flat, could be made to touch the piece which he returned. XII KANANA'S MESSENGERS Far and wide the impatient soldiers asked, "Why is the army inactive?" "Is not the motto of Kahled 'Waiting does not win'?" "Has he not taught us that action is the soul and secret of success?" "Does he not realize that the hosts of Heraclius are bearing down upon us, that he leaves us sitting idly in our tents?" "Is Kahled the Invincible afraid?" Such were the questions which they put to their officers, but no one dared carry them to the general, who sat in his tent without speaking, from sunrise to sunset, the first day after the girdle disappeared. "Is it the loss of his girdle?" "Did he not conquer Babylonia without it?"