The small sinner laughed defiantly. "The brown man beckoned me from the door of the mosque," he boasted. "I did see him and ran behind the mule that passed, and in at the door, and the brown man caught me up and smeared brown stuff on my face, and ran with me through the other door and out into the other street and covered me with this." He indicated the _djelab_ with pride. "And Selim did not find me. Ho! Ho! I saw fat Selim jumping like a jerboa as we passed the harbor gate!" Aylmer inspected him gravely. "I have a bamboo cane at home which would meet your case, young man," he said quietly. "Would the loan of it be a boon?" he asked suddenly, looking at the girl. There was no answering smile in her eyes. She shook her head. "Thank you for--your intervention," she said quickly. "No, we never beat children in America; we--we respect them." Aylmer nodded. "In England our plan is to make them respect themselves," he answered. "I dare say both methods have their advantages." He made a gesture towards the town. "Can I have the pleasure of escorting you back?" he asked. "Have you any further--attempts to fear?" There was an obvious desire for information in the question and in his eyes. She made no attempt to satisfy it. She shook her head again. "Thank you, no," she answered. "John will have no further opportunities to escape us; we have had our lesson. I can only thank you again and say good morning." He raised his cap in answer to her bow. He watched her turn and walk after Selim, who held his prisoner enfolded in an embrace that gave no loophole for a second escape, little, indeed, for any movement at all. Expression gave place to expression on Aylmer's face. Irritation succeeded surprise and that was quickly followed by amusement. Finally he seemed to dismiss the subject with a shrug which was all bewilderment. "She thanked me," he reminded himself. "She thanked me, but her manner suggested that she would rather have flung me a sovereign to get decently rid of me." He nodded his head with decision. "She's afraid of me, that's the truth. Why--in the name of all that's sensible--Why?" Echo supplied no answer. CHAPTER II AT THE TENT CLUB Aylmer tightened the reins, touched the rowels against the mare's flank, and lifted her out of her easy amble into something like a canter. He called to his companion and pointed up the slope at a gleam of white set in the dun green of the cork woods. "The camp!" he said, and gave a little sigh of relief. Through the fifteen miles which separate Tangier from Awara the two had halted no longer than sufficed to tighten a girth or light a cigarette. The horses were white with lather, the men stained with dust.