THE ARAB AND HIS STEED ii 



seemed to take tlieir eyes off lier; and Bou Maza 

 began to think tliat the young men would return 

 before bis undertaking could be accomplished. He 

 therefore uttered a loud cry, as if in agony, which 

 brought the watchers to his side, and, selecting his 

 opportunity, he plunged a knife, which he had con- 

 cealed under his dress, into their breasts, killing 

 them ere they could utter a cry ; and, flinging his 

 burnous (cloak) over their bodies, unfastened the 

 tether which hobbled the mare's fore-feet, and, 

 springing on her back, was far away in the desert 

 before the theft was discovered. When it was found 

 out, the Sheikh Ben Ali, whose son was one of the 

 slain, and all the men of the tribe, set out in pursuit, 

 and, after a chase of three days, almost surprised 

 him near one of those immense salt-marshes which 

 are so numerous in Algeria, in a place where there 

 was no way of escape but across this dangerous 

 ground ; and Bou Maza was about to attempt it, when 

 the Sheikh Ben Ali, seeing the ignominious fate that 

 awaited his beloved mare, forgot his revenge for the 

 loss of his son, and begged him to forbear, giving 

 him his sacred pledge that his tribe should not molest 

 him, or continue the pursuit for three days, should 

 he do so, preferring to run the chance of regaining 

 her another time to seeing her perish before his 

 eyes. Bou Maza accepted the pledge, and got away. 

 Another time he was hard run by the same tribe, and 

 the Sheikh, who headed the pursuing party, being 



