“That is what I came here for.  My brain and my arm from this day forth are at the service of the rulers of my country:  yourself and our common master the Khaliff.”

“Ya Salaam—­that is well!” cried Amru, laying his hand on Orion’s shoulder.  “There is but one God, and yours is ours, too, for there is none other but He! you will not have to sacrifice much in becoming a Moslem, for we, too, count your lord Jesus as one of the prophets; and even you must confess that the last and greatest of them is Mohammed, the true prophet of God.  Every man must acknowledge our lord Mohammed, who does not wilfully shut his eyes to the events which have come about under his government and in his name.  Your own father admitted. . .”

“My father?”

“He was forced to admit that we are more zealous, more earnest, more deeply possessed by our faith than you, his own fellow-believers.”

“I know it.”

“And when I told him that I had given orders that the desk for the reader of the Koran in our new mosque should be discarded, because when he stepped up to it he was uplifted above the other worshippers, the weary Mukaukas was quite agitated with satisfaction and uttered a loud cry of approbation.  We Moslems—­for that was what my commands implied—­must all be equal in the presence of God, the Eternal, the Almighty, the All-merciful; their leader in prayer must not be raised above them, even by a head; the teaching of the Prophet points the road to Paradise, to all alike, we need no earthly guide to show us the way.  It is our faith, our righteousness, our good deeds that open or close the gates of heaven; not a key in the hand of a priest.  When you are one of us, no Benjamin can embitter your happiness on earth, no Patriarch can abrogate your claims and your father’s to eternal bliss.  You have chosen well, boy!  Your hand, my convert to the true faith!”

And he held out his hand to Orion with glad excitement.  But the young man did not take it; he drew back a little and said rather uneasily: 

“Do not misunderstand me, great Captain.  Here is my hand, and I can know no greater honor than that of grasping yours, of wielding my sword under your command, of wearing it out in your service and in that of my lord the Khaliff; but I cannot be untrue to my faith.”

“Then be crushed by Benjamin—­you and all your people!” cried Armu, disappointed and angry.  He waved his hand with a gesture of disgust and dismissal, and then turned to the Vekeel with a shrug, to answer the man’s scornful exclamation.

Orion looked at them in dumb indecision; but he quickly collected himself, and said in a tone of modest but urgent entreaty: 

“Nay; hear me and do not reject my petition.  It could only be to my advantage to go over to you; and yet I can resist so great a temptation; but for that very reason I shall keep faith with you as I do to my religion.”

“Until the priests compel you to break it,” interrupted the Arab roughly.