"
"Then behold, pasha. Are not my spies in all the Palace? Is not my
scourge heavier than the whip of the horned horse? Ki di, so it is. This
I have found. Sharif hath, with others, made a plot which hath enough
powder in it to shake Egypt, and toss thee from thy high place into the
depths. There is a Christian--an Armenian, as it chances; but he was
chosen because he was a Christian, and for that only. His name is Rahib.
He is a tent-maker. He had three sons. They did kill an effendi who had
cheated them of their land. Two of them were hanged last week; the other,
caught but a few days since, is to hang within three days. To-day Kaid
goes to the Mosque of Mahmoud, as is the custom at this festival. The old
man hath been persuaded to attempt the life of Kaid, upon condition that
his son--his Benjamin--is set free. It will be but an attempt at Kaid's
life, no more; but the cry will go forth that a Christian did the thing;
and the Muslim flame will leap high."
"And the tent-maker?" asked Nahoum musingly, though he was turning over
the tale in his mind, seeing behind it and its far consequences.
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