And now, O son of Israel, thou mayst believe my declaration--if I am a lord of the Desert, behold my ministers! Take them from me, and I become as a sick man left by the caravan to die.

Thanks to them, age hath not diminished the terror of me on the highways between cities; and it will not while I have strength to go with them.

Ha, ha, ha! I could tell thee marvels done by their ancestors.

In a favoring time I may do so; for the present, enough that they were never overtaken in retreat; nor, by the sword of Solomon, did they ever fail in pursuit! That, mark you, on the sands and under saddle; but now--I do not know--I am afraid, for they are under yoke the first time, and the conditions of success are so many.

They have the pride and the speed and the endurance.