in, dark men and women with keen black eyes and the features of birds
of prey. They went, they came, they clamoured with delight among the
mourning of the men and women of Khem, and none laid a hand on them,
none refused them.

One tall fellow snatched at the staff of Rei.

"Lend me thy staff, old man," he said, sneering; "lend me thy jewelled
staff for my journey. I do but borrow it; when Yakûb comes from the
desert thou shalt have it again."

But the Wanderer turned on the fellow with such a glance that he fell
back.

"I have seen _thee_ before," he said, and he laughed over his shoulder
as he went; "I saw thee last night at the feast, and heard thy great
bow sing. Thou art not of the folk of Khem. They are a gentle folk, and
Yakûb wins favour in their sight."

"What passes now in this haunted land of thine, old man?" said
the Wanderer, "for of all the sights that I have seen, this is the
strangest. None lifts a hand to save his goods from the thief."

Rei the Priest groaned aloud.

"Evil days have come upon Khem," he said. "The Apura spoil the people of
Khem ere they fly into the Wilderness."

Even as he spoke there came a great lady weeping, for her husband was
dead, and her son and her brother, all were gone in the breath of the