Her lip curled. "You need not tell me. You left without troubling to bid me as much as a good-day. How long ago? Three weeks. Why?" Her tone was really imperious. "But I left a benediction on the doorstep," I responded. "You looked cross and I was in a hurry." Her eyes blazed; they were beautiful to see. "Where are you going?" she demanded. "To call on your father." "You have a load," observed the Captain. "A mere nothing." "Is not that a tent?" "I am shifting camp." "That nigger chap--Yazouk--came along last evening. But he vanished during the night. We fancied something might have happened." "Oh, Yazouk. He broke a cup and feared I would turn him into a hyena, so he ran away." "What!" shouted the Captain. "A superstitious creature," I shrugged. The Captain shook with laughter. "We wondered how you had tamed him," he chuckled presently--"after the bout. 'Pon honour, you served him very prettily. Straight from the shoulder and savate, too. The dragoman declares you have the evil eye." "Have you lost your donkey, Dr. Pinsent?" demanded Miss Ottley. "He expired suddenly last evening." Captain Weldon frowned and sat up very straight in his saddle. "Eh?" he said and looked a question. "I had an Arab visitor. My visitor or another killed my donkey with a knife. I should like to have caught him in the act." "My dream," said Miss Ottley, and caught her breath. "By Jove," said the Captain, "it is really wonderful--but wait--you had a visitor, Doctor?" "I believe it." "Did he offer to attack you?" "The spirit of the cavern!" cried the girl. "A lunatic of an Arab," I retorted, "and so little of a spirit that I had hard work to prevent him throttling me." "But the face. Did you see the face?" "Our friend of the cavern," I admitted. Miss Ottley glanced at the Captain, then back at me. She was as white as a lily. "I knew it," she said. "I saw him kill the donkey and steal upon you--in a dream. His hands were bloody--and, look, there is blood still on your throat." "My cask was empty, so perforce I could not wash," I murmured. The Captain looked thunderstruck. "It's the most wonderful thing," he kept repeating, "the most wonderful thing in the world." "And I never thought of looking in the mirror. It was packed up," I went on. I took out a rather grimy kerchief and began to rub at my neck. "Has that wretched Arab--worried you at all--since I left, Miss Ottley?" "I have seen him twice--and once more" (she shuddered) "in my dream." "And where did you see him out of dreams?" "Once in the cavern and once in my father's tent. Each time at night. Each time he vanished like a shadow." "Did anyone else see him?" "My father and Captain Weldon." "The most hideous brute I ever saw," commented the Captain; "you could put a good-sized head between his eyes. And such eyes. Dull as mud, but horribly intelligent."