'
'It is clearly the end of the world,' said Amalek, with a savage sigh.
'Why I am here,' said Eva, 'I am only the child of your child, a woman
without spears; why do you not seize me and send to Besso? He must
ransom me, for I am the only offspring of his loins. Ask for four
millions of piastres I He can raise them. Let him send round to all the
cities of Syria, and tell his brethren that a Bedouin Sheikh has made
his daughter and her maidens captive, and, trust me, the treasure will
be forthcoming. He need not say it is one on whom he has lavished a
thousand favours, whose visage was darker than the simoom when he made
the great Pasha smile on him; who, however he may talk of living in
cities now, could come cringing to El Sham to ask for the contract
of the Hadj, by which he had gained ten thousand camels; he need say
nothing of all this, and, least of all, need he say that the spoiler is
his father!'
'What is this Prince of Franguestan to thee and thine?' said Amalek.
'He comes to our land like his brethren, to see the sun and seek for
treasure in our ruins, and he bears, like all of them, some written
words to your father, saying, "Give to this man what he asks, and we
will give to your people what they ask." I understand all this: they all
come to your father because he deals in money, and is the only man in
Syria who has money.
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