This covert insult, after the exchange of salt, boded very ill.
In silence the Legionaries watched the Arabs dry their hands and faces on towels given them by the slave-girls, who then noiselessly withdrew.

All the Arabs prostrated themselves and prayed.

The Master was the only one who noticed one significant fact: that now the _kiblah_, or direction of prayer, was not to the north-west, where lay Mecca, but--judging by the sun--was almost due west, toward the spot where lay the Black Stone.

This reassured him once more.
"They recognize the Stone, right enough," thought he.

"As long as nothing happens to that, we hold the whip-hand of them.