"Tell me, Rrisa, what of all this?"
"Your steed is very swift and very mighty. Your flying ship is very
great," the Arab admitted. "But Allah and his Prophet are greater!
_Allahu akbar!_" (Allah is greatest!)
"Of course. But tell thou me, Rrisa, if I were to appear at Mecca in
my _Nissr Arrib ela Sema_--my Eagle of the Sky--would not thy people
give me great honors?"
"My head is at your feet, _M'alme_, and I am yours to do with as
you will, even to the death, but I implore you, by the beard of the
Prophet, do not do this thing!"
"And why not, Rrisa?"
"You and I, Master, are _akhawat_.[1] Therefore I can speak true
words. You must not go to Mecca. No man of the _Nasara_ may go
there--and live."
[Footnote 1: _Akhawat_ signifies in Arabic the tie of sworn
brotherhood between an Arab and one of different blood.]
"Thou meanest that if we go to Mecca and they capture us, they will
kill us all?"
"Yea, Master. And I too shall die, for being with you, though I count
that as less than nothing."
The Master kept a moment's silence, pondering; while, without, the
voices of empty heaven whistled by, from strut and wire, brace
and stay.
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