“We have brought you a Christian,” shouted the servants as they led Forder into a room full of men, and dumped his goods down on the floor.  “We stick him on to you; do what you can with him.”

“This is neither a Christian, nor a Jew, nor an infidel,” shouted one of the men, “but a pig.”  He did not know that Forder understood Arabic.

“Men,” he replied boldly, “I am neither pig, infidel, nor Jew.  I am a Christian, one that worships God, the same God as you do.”

“If you are a Christian,” exclaimed the old Chief, “go and sit among the cattle!” So Forder went to the further end of the room and sat between an old white mare and a camel.

Soon a man came in, and walking over to Forder put his hand out and shook his.  He sat down by him and, talking very quietly so that the others should not hear, said:  “Who are you, and from where do you come?”

“From Jerusalem,” said Forder.  “I am a Christian preacher.”

“If you value your life,” went on the stranger, “you will get out of this as quickly as you can, or the men, who are a bad lot, will kill you.  I am a Druze[70] but I pretend to be a Moslem.”

“What sort of a man is the Chief of Ithera?” asked Forder.

“Very kind,” was the reply.  So the friendly stranger went out.  Forder listened carefully to the talk.

“Let us cut his throat while he is asleep,” said one man.

“No,” said the Chief.  “I will not have the blood of a Christian on my house and town.”

“Let us poison his supper,” said another.  But the Chief would not agree.

“Drive him out into the desert to die of hunger and thirst,” suggested a third.  “No,” said the Chief, whose name was Khy-Khevan, “we will leave him till the morning.”

Forder was then called to share supper with the others, and afterwards the Chief led him out to the palm gardens, so that his evil influence should not make the beasts ill; half an hour later, fearing he would spoil the date-harvest by his presence, the Chief led him to a filthy tent where an old man lay with a disease so horrible that they had thrust him out of the village to die.

The next day Forder found that later in the week the old Chief himself was going to the Jowf.  Ripping open the waistband of his trousers, Forder took out four French Napoleons (gold coins worth 16s. each) and went off to the Chief, whom he found alone in his guest room.

Walking up to him Forder held out the money saying, “If you will let me go to the Jowf with you, find me camel, water and food, I will give you these four pieces.”

“Give them to me now,” said Khy-Khevan, “and we will start after to-morrow.”

“No,” replied Forder, “you come outside, and before the men of the place I will give them to you; they must be witnesses.”  So in the presence of the men the bargain was made.

In the morning the camels were got together—­about a hundred and twenty of them—­with eighty men, some of whom came round Forder, and patting their daggers and guns said, “These things are for using on Christians.  We shall leave your dead body in the sand if you do not change your religion and be a follower of Mohammed.”