“Yes, yes, I know,” Mr. Hampton said, impatiently. “But I must be off. Allola, this old Arab woman, will look after you until my return. And if I fail, well——” A shrug of the shoulders completed his sentence. “Monsieur must not fail if he would see his son again,” the Athensian said. “But before you go, let me explain. I shall be brief.” Mr. Hampton unwillingly returned and the Athensian continued: “I met Professor Souchard on one of his scouting expeditions about the base of our mountain wall. I am an exile from Athensi, monsieur. How I come to speak French is easily explained. I am of the priest clan, and our young men for ages have been sent into the outside world for a certain period of study. Always this has been so. We made our way into Egypt under the Pharaohs. When Carthage rose, we were represented there. At the height of Rome’s power, our young men were at her court, learning the secrets of her civilization and power. Through each succeeding age, we have gone out across the desert and entered the halls of learning of the dominant races of civilization. I was one of those selected to study the French, and I have served in the French Foreign Legion in Algiers. “Then we return after a certain time, not to give the benefit of our acquired knowledge to our people, who are steeped in ignorance, being little better than the Kabyles of Northern Africa, who, as monsieur doubtless knows, are a semi-savage white race living in the mountain. No, we exercise this knowledge to retain our power. Some day there will come a revolution. I was one of those not contented with this abuse of power. I felt our country should be developed, and opened to civilization, surrounded though it is on every side by the desert. For this, I was an exile to Korakum. “Another drink. I beg, monsieur. Ah, that is better. I draw near the finish of my words. Monsieur, I see, is anxious to be gone. Well spies of the Oligarch saw me converse with Professor Souchard whose first escape from Korakum had been regretted by the priest clan as a mistake. And heavily did they punish those who aided him then. Heavily monsieur. They paid with their lives. For the priest clan does not wish civilization from the outside world to enter our mountains, lest the power of its members be shattered. “But I have friends. Knowledge that I had been spied upon in my conversations with Professor Souchard was not unknown to me. It was only recently I had met him, on the next to last trip he made into our region. When he came the last time, I met him out on the desert and warned him the expedition which he and you, monsieur—for I suppose you are the comrade he awaited—must turn back. He had not known before of the priest clan, nor of all this I have told you so sketchily. He said he would meet you at this oasis, and that he would tell you what I told him and go back with you across the desert.