"I cried out and Martin awakened. As he moved, the
man stepped out of the light and was gone. I think he had
not seen Martin; had believed that I was alone.

"We put out the fire, moved farther into the shadow of
the trees. But I could not sleep--I sat hour after hour,
my pistol in my hand," she patted the automatic in her
belt, "my rifle close beside me.

"The hours went by--dreadfully. At last I dozed. When
I awakened again it was dawn--and--and--" she covered
her eyes, then: "TWO men were looking down on me. One
was he who had stood in the firelight."

"They were talking," interrupted Ventnor again, "in
archaic Persian."

"Persian," I repeated blankly; "archaic Persian?"

"Very much so," he nodded. "I've a fair knowledge of
the modern tongue, and a rather unusual command of
Arabic. The modern Persian, as you know, comes straight
through from the speech of Xerxes, of Cyrus, of Darius
whom Alexander of Macedon conquered. It has been
changed mainly by taking on a load of Arabic words. Well
--there wasn't a trace of the Arabic in the tongue they
were speaking.

"It sounded odd, of course--but I could understand