'I am wholly starved. I have had only some dates and milk for three days,' replied Allan, who, with some satisfaction, heard him order a kid to be killed, that they might have a repast together, and then he ordered the other Frankish prisoner to be brought before him. 'Holcroft!' exclaimed Allan, in a breathless voice, and scarcely able to believe his senses, when one, who seemed undoubtedly that obnoxious personage, was dragged before the sheikh with a sullen and defiant air scarcely suited to the situation. His European surtout and trousers were discoloured, tattered, and torn; he had on a scarlet tarboosh, and wore his fair beard at some length now. 'Holcroft!' exclaimed Allan again, 'you here? Here in Egypt--what miracle is this?' 'Your words express more surprise than pleasure,' replied Holcroft, while Zeid-el-Ourdeh looked from one to the other in some surprise at their evident sudden recognition. 'Ah,' he continued, with a malevolent grimace, 'you thought I was drowned, no doubt, and feeding the fishes in the Solent!' 'You are reserved for a drier and more deserved death, I presume,' said Allan. 'Sneer as you may over me and my misfortunes----' 'Misfortunes, you miscreant! But how in the name of wonder----' 'If you care to know how I come to be here, in the same unpleasant and unsavoury hands with yourself--a gunboat picked me up off Southsea, for I am a strong swimmer, but, for all that, was too exhausted to be sent ashore. I was put into the sick-bay and brought on here, all the way to Ismailia, and then turned adrift to live by my wits. I made my way to Cairo, and was fain to become billiard-marker at the hotel where I saw you, and once again at the review before the Abdin palace. The 196hotels, and cafes too, tired of me. I was setting out on foot to overtake some of your invalids en route to Ismailia when these infernal Bedouins nabbed me, and I am here.' 'And now that you are here, may I inquire what you mean to do with your precious self?' 'Take office under the Khedive's government. There will be no end of nice pickings for Europeans now that the shindy is over.' 'Office--as what?' 'Oh, anything--I am not particular--Inspector-General of Harems would suit me to a hair--down to the ground, in fact.' 'Bantering villain! And how about those diamonds you stole from Miss Raymond--a luckless heirloom in our family, always bringing evil to the holder or wearer?' 'Well, they have brought no evil to me yet,' replied Holcroft, with a defiant grin--a dogged one too; 'I have them safe here,' he added, slapping his breast pocket, 'and don't mean to part with them. They are quite a fortune to me.' And he had the folly, the madness, in mere bravado, to show them for a moment. 'Keep these, fellow--they are certain to bring you ill-luck in some way.'