Within the Khalifa was seated upon an angareb, and a
grey-bearded Greek stood beside him. The Khalifa remarked to them that
they were both to be employed upon the manufacture of gunpowder, with
which the armies of the Turks were shortly to be overwhelmed.
Feversham was on the point of disclaiming any knowledge of the process,
but before he could open his lips he heard Trench declaring in fluent
Arabic that there was nothing connected with gunpowder which he did not
know about; and upon his words they were both told they were to be
employed at the powder factory under the supervision of the Greek.
For that Greek both prisoners will entertain a regard to their dying
day. There was in the world a true Samaritan. It was out of sheer pity,
knowing the two men to be herded in the House of Stone, that he
suggested to the Khalifa their employment, and the same pity taught him
to cover the deficiencies of their knowledge.
"I know nothing whatever about the making of gunpowder except that
crystals are used," said Trench. "But we shall leave the prison each
day, and that is something, though we return each night. Who knows when
a chance of escape may come?"
The powder factory lay in the northward part of the town, and on the
bank of the Nile just beyond the limits of the great mud wall and at the
back of the slave market.
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