“Pardon me, Monsieur,” said Abdullah, “but I care to see no one save the little maid sleeping within.”

“Ah,” said his host, “it is love, is it?  I thought it was commercialism.”

“No,” said Abdullah; “it is a question of how I can keep the woman I love, and still keep my commercial integrity.  She is consigned to me by her father, to be delivered to Mirza, the mother of the dancers, in Biskra.  I am the trusted caravan owner between El Merb and Biskra.  In the last ten years I have killed many men who tried to rob my freight of dates, and hides, and gold-dust.  Now I long to rob my own freight of the most precious thing I have ever carried.  May I do it, and still be a man; or must I deliver the damsel, re-cross the desert, return the passage money to her father, come once more to Biskra, and find my love the sport of the cafes?”

The Man who Keeps Goats rose and paced the floor.

“My son,” he said, finally, “when the French occupied Algeria, they made this bargain—­’Mussulmans shall be judged by their civil law.’  It was a compromise and, therefore, a weakness.  The civil law of the Mohammedans is, virtually, the Koran.  The law of France is, virtually, the Code Napoleon.  The parties to the present contract being Mohammedans, it will be construed by their law, and it is not repugnant to it.  If, on the contrary, the damsel were a Christian, the French commandant at Biskra would tear the contract to pieces, since it is against morals.  Better yet, if you were a Christian, and the damsel your wife, you might hold her in Biskra against the world.”

Abdullah sat silent, his eyes half closed.

“Monsieur,” he said at length, “is it very difficult to become a Christian?”

The Man who Keeps Goats sat silent—­in his turn.

“My son,” he said, finally, “I myself am a priest of the Church.  I have lived in the desert for twenty years, but I have never been unfrocked.  I cannot answer you, but I can tell you what a wiser than I declared to a desert traveller who put this same question nineteen hundred years ago.”

He took up the book upon the table, turned a few pages, and read—­“’And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.  And he arose and went:  and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet....  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?  And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him....  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.  And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water:  and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?