CHAPTER VIII

_FEMME SOUVENT VARIE_ "Somewhere upon that trackless wide, it may be we shall meet The Ancient Prophet's caravan, and glimpse his camel fleet." We were quite an ordinary party. Two sturdy desert Bedouins, Dufour and I, followed by two heavily shrouded females and trailed by a whining beggar--Raoul. I had refused to let Vanbrugh come to Ibrahim Maghruf's house with us, partly because his only chance of not being torn to pieces in the streets was to get quickly back to the Governor's, where he could use a ri…