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At last he sat down on the ledge of the rude fountain, with his face towards the Gippies and the Arabs squatted on the ground, some playing mankalah, others sucking dry lime leaves, many smoking apathetically. One man with the flicker of insanity in his eyes suddenly ran forward and threw himself on the ground before Wyndham. "In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful water!" he cried.

At last he sat down on the ledge of the rude fountain, with his face towards the Gippies and the Arabs squatted on the ground, some playing mankalah, others sucking dry lime leaves, many smoking apathetically. One man with the flicker of insanity in his eyes suddenly ran forward and threw himself on the ground before Wyndham. "In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful water!" he cried.

Now, moreover, this decree gave Garrofat the right to accept as a husband for me any suitor who succeeded in performing certain tasks, first of which was the repairing of the great Mankalah rug hanging here beside you. "You can see, O prince, that it is made up of separate pieces, each containing from three to five squares, fourteen pieces in all.

Now when the Vizier Garrofat returned he was angered to find the princess conversing with the strangers, and remarked sourly, "Much wisdom, my lords, may be found in the complaints of women. Azalia has doubtless been telling you of the riddle of the Mankalah rug, forgetting that it is unseemly in a maiden to point the way to the possession of her charms."

To the right of the porch was suspended a great Mankalah rug made in the pattern of a large checker board; but which on closer inspection appeared to be imperfectly put together, as several of the squares were missing.

It might have been a medley, but, as things happened, it was an overture; and by the eyes, the red-litten windows of the mind of Mahommed Ibrahim, who squatted beside the Yorkshire engineer at the wheel, playing mankalah, he knew it was an overture. As he went to his cabin he murmured to himself "There's the devil to pay: now I wonder who pays?"

It might have been a medley, but, as things happened, it was an overture; and by the eyes, the red-litten windows of the mind of Mahommed Ibrahim, who squatted beside the Yorkshire engineer at the wheel, playing mankalah, he knew it was an overture. As he went to his cabin he murmured to himself "There's the devil to pay: now I wonder who pays?"