Back bent La Belle, and still farther back until her evil face was on a level with that of the man she was trying to subjugate, and when for an instant his eyes rested on hers, which peered at him from the strange angle of her upside down position, she whispered one little word.

And then a great fury suddenly blazed in Hahmed’s eyes, a sudden storm of hate swept across the stern face, as his hand steel strong closed fiercely about the long thin neck.

“Thou daughter of gutter dogs,” he whispered, so low that the words were hardly caught by Ali ’Assan, who with fingers twining uncontrollably in his white garment, sat petrified by the suddenly arisen storm.  “Thou essence of evil, go back to the devil who spawned thee.”

There was a choked gurgling cry as the hand closed tighter, a little click like the closing of a safe door, and the body of the dead woman, was hurled into the middle of the room, whilst Hahmed lit a cigarette and clapped his hands for the presence of Achmed, who, his legs refusing to support his shaking body, crawled in on his hands and knees.

“Carry that carrion out, O! thou trafficker in evil, and throw it to the jackals.”

“Master, O! master!  May the light of Allah shine upon thee in thy wisdom, may the houris of paradise make thy couch one of delight when thou art gathered to thy forefathers!  In all ignorance I sent yon ignoble female to dance before my honoured guest—­a great price I paid for her in the market.”

“Thou liest,” gently replied his master.

Whereupon Achmed gathered good handfuls of dust from the floor and massaged it into his oily hair, whilst Hahmed, rising to his great height, prayed forgiveness from his guest, who was even then thinking what a waste of good material the dead woman represented.

“Let this serve thee as a lesson, thou perverter of Allah’s truth,” spake Hahmed, in a voice as caressing as that of a woman, “and teach thee to acquire property which does honour to thy house.  Camels, a male and female, shall be sent in payment for that for which thou hast not paid one piastre.

“Breed with them so that the milk refreshes the traveller, and the hair spins soft covering for their bed, and fail me not again, for behold when I strike it is as the lightning which blasts the tree.”

And the two men stalked silently from the scene of the tragedy, leaving Achmed rubbing his hands in glee, with intervals of removing particles of dust from his eyes and mouth, whilst his virago of a first wife ambled in to ascertain the proceeds of the evening, an account of which caused her to raise dirty hands to heaven and praise Allah, before she ambled out again, contemptuously kicking the dead body en passant, which action nearly upset the equilibrium of her cumbersome body, as she hastened to summon the help necessary to lift and carry to the jackals the body of La Belle who had missed her chance.