“I know. My friends have disappeared one by one--Nahoum. Lands have been alienated from me--Nahoum. My income has declined--Nahoum. I have given orders and they have not been fulfilled--Nahoum. Always, always some rumour of assassination, or of conspiracy, or the influence and secret agents of the Sultan--all Nahoum. He is a traitor. He has grown rich while I borrow from Europe to pay my army and to meet the demands of the Sultan.” “What man can offer evidence in this save the Effendina who would profit by his death?” “I speak of what I know. I satisfy myself. It is enough.” “Highness, there is a better way; to satisfy the people, for whom thee lives. None should stand between. Is not the Effendina a father to them?” “The people! Would they not say Nahoum had got his due if he were blotted from their sight?” “None has been so generous to the poor, so it is said by all. His hand has been upon the rich only. Now, Effendina, he has brought hither the full amount of all he has received and acquired in thy service. He would offer it in tribute.” Kaid smiled sardonically. “It is a thin jest. When a traitor dies the State confiscates his goods!” “Thee calls him traitor. Does thee believe he has ever conspired against thy life?” Kaid shrugged his shoulders. “Let me answer for thee, Effendina. Again and again he has defeated conspiracy. He has blotted it out--by the sword and other means. He has been a faithful servant to his Prince at least. If he has done after the manner of all others in power here, the fault is in the system, not in the man alone. He has been a friend to thee, Kaid.” “I hope to find in thee a better.” “Why should he not live?” “Thou hast taken his place.” “Is it, then, the custom to destroy those who have served thee, when they cease to serve?” David rose to his feet quickly. His face was shining with a strange excitement. It gave him a look of exaltation, his lips quivered with indignation. “Does thee kill because there is silence in the grave?” Kaid blew a cloud of smoke slowly. “Silence in the grave is a fact beyond dispute,” he said cynically. “Highness, thee changes servants not seldom,” rejoined David meaningly. “It may be that my service will be short. When I go, will the long arm reach out for me in the burrows where I shall hide?” Kaid looked at him with ill-concealed admiration. “Thou art an Englishman, not an Egyptian, a guest, not a subject, and under no law save my friendship.” Then he added scornfully: “When an Englishman in England leaves office, no matter how unfaithful, though he be a friend of any country save his own, they send him to the House of Lords--or so I was told in France when I was there. What does it matter to thee what chances to Nahoum? Thou hast his place with me. My secrets are thine. They shall all be thine--for years I have sought an honest man. Thou art safe whether to go or to stay.”