"
"Then will I compel thee to follow me," said El Hakim.
"Compel!" answered Sir Kenneth angrily. "Wert thou not my
benefactor, or one who has showed will to be such, and were it
not that it is to thy confidence I owe the freedom of these
hands, which thou mightst have loaded with fetters, I would show
thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsion would be no easy task."
"Enough, enough," replied the Arabian physician, "we lose time
even when it is becoming precious."
So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill
cry, as a signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed
themselves on the face of the desert, in as many different
directions as a chaplet of beads when the string is broken. Sir
Kenneth had no time to note what ensued; for, at the same
instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed, and putting his
own to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with the suddenness
of light, and at a pitch of velocity which almost deprived the
Scottish knight of the power of respiration, and left him
absolutely incapable, had he been desirous, to have checked the
career of his guide.
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