“Lord Basha,” she said, “the beautiful Jewess Naomi, the daughter of Israel ben Oliel, will turn Muslima.”

“Where is she?” said Ben Aboo.

“Sidi,” said Habeebah, “I have promised that you will liberate her father.”

“Fetch her,” said Ben Aboo, “and it shall be done.”

But meanwhile Fatimah had gone to Habeebah’s room and found Naomi there, and heard of the vain hope which had brought her.

“My sweet jewel of gold and silver,” the black woman cried, “you don’t know what you are doing.  Turn Muslima, and you will be parted from your father for ever.  He is a Jew, and will have no right to you any more.  You will never, never see him again.  He will be lost to you—­lost—­I say—­lost!”

Habeebah, with two of the guard, came back to take Naomi to Ben Aboo.  The poor girl was bewildered.  She had seen nothing but her father in Fatimah’s protest, just as she had seen nothing but her father in Habeebah’s promises.  She did not know what to do, she was such a poor weak little thing, and there was no strong hand to guide her.

They led her through dark passages to an open place which she thought she had seen before.  It was a great patio, paved and walled with tiles.  Men were standing together there in red peaked caps and flowing white kaftans.  And before them all was one old man in garments that were of the colour of the afternoon sun, with sleeves like the mouths of bells, a silver knife at his waistband, and little leather bags, hung by yellow cords, about his neck.  Beside this man there was a woman of a laughing cruel face, and she herself, Naomi, stood in the midst, with every eye upon her.  Where had she seen all this before?

Ben Aboo had often bethought him of the beautiful girl since he committed her father to prison.  He cherished schemes concerning her which he did not share with his wife Katrina.  But he had hitherto been withheld by two considerations:  the first being that he was beset with difficulties arising out of the demands of the Sultan for more money than he could find, and the next that he foresaw the necessity that might perchance arise of recalling Israel to his post.  Out of these grave bedevilments he had extricated himself at length by imposing dues on certain tribes of Reefians, who had never yet acknowledged the Sultan’s authority, and by calling on the Sultan’s army to enforce them.  The Sultan had come in answer to his summons, the Reefians had been routed, their villages burnt, and that morning at daybreak he had received a message saying that Abd er-Rahman intended to keep the feast of the Moolood at Tetuan.  So this capture of Naomi was the luckiest chance that could have befallen him at such a moment.  She should witness to the Prophet; her father, the Jew, would thereby lose his rights in her; and he himself, as her sole guardian, would present her as a peace-offering to the Sultan on crossing the boundary of his bashalic.