Accept my
warmest thanks for your care and watchfulness. Allah will some day
enable me to prove my gratitude, and will also permit you to be a
witness of your friend's happiness. And now, farewell, and to-
morrow, if it be Allah's will, I shall return to you in joyousness
and safety."
"May Allah grant it!" said Osman. "Allah be with you, and the
prophet illumine your heart! One thing more, my Mohammed: Lovers, it
is said, are forgetful; the warning voice easily escapes, their
hearing, and with open eyes they dream blissful dreams which make
them oblivious of reality. It may therefore be well to arouse them
sometimes, and I will try to awaken my dear dreamer. If you hear the
report of a pistol in the night, consider that it is Osman warning
you to be on your guard. But if two other shots soon after follow
the first, this signal shall announce that danger threatens, and
that I am calling you. In that case, come to me at once, no matter
what time of night it may be. I shall await you. Now you may go, my
friend, and Allah be with you!"
CHAPTER XI
THE TRIPLE OATH.
"We must assure his safety," murmured Osman, as he looked after his
friend, who was hastily leaving the garden. "His life must at least
be sacred, and I will go at once with my father to Cousrouf Pacha.
It is a sacrifice, for I hate this proud, overbearing man. He seems
to consider himself as conferring a favor when he condescends to
accept our hospitality.
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