frenzy increased among the madmen, and their victims became fewer, each
fanatic turned upon himself, and tore his own skin and battered his head
against the stones until blood ran like water.

"Fools and blind guides!" cried the Mahdi sweeping them before him like
sheep. "Is this how you turn the streets into a sickening sewer? Oh, the
abomination of desolation! You tear yourselves in the name of God, but
forget His justice and mercy. Away! You will have your reward. Away!
Away!"

At the gate of the Kasbah he demanded to see the Kaid, and, after
various parleyings with the guards and negroes who haunted the winding
ways of the gloomy place, he was introduced to the Basha's presence.
The Basha received him in a room so dark that he could but dimly see his
face. Ben Aboo was stretched on a carpet, in much the position of a dog
with his muzzle on his forepaws.

"Welcome," he said gruffly, and without changing his own unceremonious
posture, he gave the Mahdi a signal to sit.

The Mahdi did not sit. "Ben Aboo," he said in a voice that was half
choked with anger, "I have come again on an errand of mercy, and woe to
you if you send me away unsatisfied."

Ben Aboo lay silent and gloomy for a moment, and then said with a growl,
"What is it now?"

"Where is the daughter of Ben Oliel?" said the Mahdi.

With a gesture of protestation the Basha waved one of the hands on which