Page:Marion Crawford - Khaled.djvu/33

 The grooms saw that there was a rebuke in the last part of his answer and hung back and presently went their way.

'Are such mares bred in the Red Desert?' they exclaimed. 'The stranger is doubtless the sheikh of some powerful tribe. But if this be true, where are the men that came with him? And why is he dressed like a man of the city?'

So they hastened out of the gateway to find the Bedouins who, they supposed, must have accompanied Khaled on his journey.

But Khaled went forward and came to a great court in which were stone seats by the walls. Here a number of people were waiting. So he sat down upon one of the seats and his mare laid her nose upon his shoulder as though inquiring what he would do.

'Allah knows,' Khaled said, as though answering her. So he waited patiently.

At last a man came out into the courtyard who was richly dressed, and whom all the people saluted as he passed. But he came straight towards Khaled, who rose from his seat.

'Whence come you, my friend?' he inquired after they had exchanged the salutation.

'From the Red Desert, and I desire permission to speak with the Sultan when it shall please his majesty to see me.'