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 ‘Oh, that!’ replied the soldier, with a deprecating laugh: ‘ That is a thing unworthy of your Honour’s notice. The rogue in question is a well-known malefactor. He and I are old acquaintance.’

‘By the beard of the Prophet, by the August Coran, I never saw his devil’s face until this minute!’ bawled the muleteer, who had come up behind me.

‘Give back the knife,’ I ordered for the second time.

‘By Allah, never!’ was the cool reply.

‘Give it back, I say!’

‘No, it cannot be—not even to oblige your Honour, for whose pleasure, Allah knows, I would do almost anything,’ murmured the soldier, with a charming smile. ‘Demand it not. Be pleased to understand that if it were your Honour’s knife I would return it instantly. But that man, as I tell thee, is a wretch. It grieves me to behold a person of consideration in such an unbecoming temper upon his account—a dog, no more.’

‘Tf he is a dog, he is my dog for the present; so give back the knife!’

‘Alas, beloved, that is quite impossible.’