6 files changed, 19954 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/11357-0.txt b/11357-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d57baba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/11357-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9760 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11357 ***
+
+JIMGRIM AND ALLAH'S PEACE
+
+by Talbot Mundy
+
+
+
+To Jimgrim:  whose real name, rank, and military distinctions,
+I promised never to make public.
+
+
+Contents
+
+I.  "Look for a man named Grim."
+II.  "No objection;  Only a stipulation."
+III.  "Do whatever the leader of the escort tells you."
+IV.  "I am willing to use all means--all methods."
+V.  "D'you mind if I use you?"
+VI.  "That man will repay study."
+VII.  "Who gives orders to me?"
+VIII.  "He will say next that it was he who set the stars in the
+sky over El-Kerak, and makes the moon rise!"
+IX.  "Feet downwards, too afraid to yell"--
+X.  "Money doesn't weigh much!"
+XI.  "And the rest of the acts of Ahaziah--"
+XII.  "You know you'll get scuppered if you're found out!"
+XIII.  "You may now be unsafe and an outlaw and enjoy yourself!"
+XIV.  "Windy bellies without hearts in them."
+XV.  "I'll have nothing to do with it!"
+XVI.  "The enemy is nearly always useful if you leave him free to
+make mistakes."
+XVII.  "Poor old Scharnhoff's in the soup."
+XVIII.  "But we're ready for them."
+XIX.  "Dead or Alive, Sahib."
+XX.  "All men are equal in the dark."
+------------
+
+
+
+
+Chapter One
+
+"Look for a man named Grim."
+
+
+There is a beautiful belief that journalists may do exactly as
+they please, and whenever they please.   Pleasure with violet
+eyes was in Chicago.  My passport describes me as a journalist.
+My employer said:  "Go to Jerusalem."  I went, that was in 1920.
+
+I had been there a couple of times before the World War, when the
+Turks were in full control.  So I knew about the bedbugs and the
+stench of the citadel moat;  the pre-war price of camels;  enough
+Arabic to misunderstand it when spoken fluently, and enough of
+the Old Testament and the Koran to guess at Arabian motives,
+which are important, whereas words are usually such stuff as lies
+are made of.
+
+El Kudz, as Arabs call Jerusalem, is, from a certain distance, as
+they also call it, shellabi kabir.  Extremely beautiful.
+Beautiful upon a mountain.  El Kudz means The City, and in a
+certain sense it is that, to unnumbered millions of people.
+Ludicrous, uproarious, dignified, pious, sinful, naively
+confidential, secretive, altruistic, realistic.  Hoary-ancient
+and ultra-modern.  Very, very proud of its name Jerusalem, which
+means City of Peace.  Full to the brim with the malice of
+certainly fifty religions, fifty races, and five hundred thousand
+curious political chicaneries disguised as plans to save our
+souls from hell and fill some fellow's purse.  The jails
+are full.
+
+"Look for a man named Grim," said my employer.  "James Schuyler
+Grim, American, aged thirty-four or so.  I've heard he knows
+the ropes."
+
+The ropes, when I was in Jerusalem before the war, were
+principally used for hanging people at the Jaffa Gate, after they
+had been well beaten on the soles of their feet to compel them to
+tell where their money was hidden.  The Turks entirely understood
+the arts of suppression and extortion, which they defined as
+government.  The British, on the other hand, subject their normal
+human impulse to be greedy, and their educated craving to be
+gentlemanly white man's burden-bearers, to a process of compromise.
+Perhaps that isn't government.  But it works.  They even carry
+compromise to the point of not hanging even their critics if
+they can possibly avoid doing it.  They had not yet, but they
+were about to receive a brand-new mandate from a brand-new
+League of Nations, awkwardly qualified by Mr. Balfour's
+post-Armistice promise to the Zionists to give the country to
+the Jews, and by a war-time promise, in which the French had
+joined, to create an Arab kingdom for the Arabs.
+
+So there was lots of compromising being done, and hell to pay,
+with no one paying, except, of course, the guests in the hotels,
+at New York prices.  The Zionist Jews were arriving in droves.
+The Arabs, who owned most of the land, were threatening to cut
+all the Jews' throats as soon as they could first get all their
+money.  Feisal, a descendant of the Prophet, who had fought
+gloriously against the Turks, was romantically getting ready in
+Damascus to be crowned King of Syria.  The French, who pride
+themselves on being realistic, were getting ready to go after
+Feisal with bayonets and poison-gas, as they eventually did.
+
+In Jerusalem the Bolsheviks, astonishingly credulous of "secret"
+news from Moscow, and skeptical of every one's opinion but their
+own, were bolsheviking Marxian Utopia beneath a screen of such
+arrogant innocence that even the streetcorner police constables
+suspected them.  And Mustapha Kemal, in Anatolia, was rumoured to
+be preparing a holy war.  It was known as a Ghazi in those
+days.  He had not yet scrapped religion.  He was contemplating,
+so said rumour, a genuine old-fashioned moslem jihad, with
+modern trimmings.
+
+A few enthusiasts astonishingly still laboured for an American
+mandate.  At the Holy Sepulchre a British soldier stood on guard
+with bayonet and bullets to prevent the priests of rival creeds
+from murdering one another.  The sun shone and so did the stars.
+General Bols reopened Pontius Pilate's water-works.  The learned
+monks in convents argued about facts and theories denied by
+archaeologists.  Old-fashioned Jews wailed at the Wailing Wall.
+Tommy Atkins blasphemously dug corpses of donkeys and dogs from
+the Citadel moat.
+
+I arrived in the midst of all that, and spent a couple of months
+trying to make head or tail of it, and wondering, if that was
+peace, what war is?  They say that wherever a man was ever slain
+in Palestine a flower grows.  So one gets a fair idea of the
+country's mass-experience without much difficulty.  For three
+months of the year, from end to end, the whole landscape is
+carpeted with flowers so close together that, except where beasts
+and men have trodden winding tracks, one can hardly walk without
+crushing an anemone or wild chrysanthemum.  There are more
+battle-fields in that small land than all Europe can show.  There
+are streams everywhere that historians assert repeatedly "ran
+blood for days."
+
+Five thousand years of bloody terrorism, intermingling of races,
+piety, plunder, politics and pilgrims, have produced a self-
+consciousness as concentrated as liquid poison-gas.  The laughter
+is sarcastic, the humour sardonic, and the credulity beyond
+analysis.  For instance, when I got there, I heard the British
+being accused of "imperialistic savagery" because they had
+removed the leprous beggars from the streets into a clean place
+where they could receive medical treatment.
+
+It was difficult to find one line of observation.  Whatever
+anybody told you, was reversed entirely by the next man.  The
+throat-distorting obligation to study Arabic called for rather
+intimate association with educated Arabs, whose main obsession
+was fear of the Zionist Jews.  The things they said against
+the Jews turned me pro-Zionist.  So I cautiously made the
+acquaintance of some gentlemen with gold-rimmed spectacles, and
+the things they said about the Arabs set me to sympathizing with
+the sons of Ishmael again.
+
+In the midst of that predicament I met Jimgrim--Major James
+Schuyler Grim, to give him his full title, although hardly any
+one ever called him by it.  After that, bewilderment began to
+cease as, under his amused, painstaking fingers, thread after
+thread of the involved gnarl of plots and politics betrayed
+its course.
+
+However, first I must tell how I met him.  There is an American
+Colony in Jerusalem--a community concern that runs a one-price
+store, and is even more savagely criticized than the British
+Administration, as is only natural.  The story of what they did
+in the war is a three-year epic.  You can't be "epic" and not
+make enemies.
+
+A Chicago Jew assured me they were swine and horse-thieves.  But
+I learned that the Yemen Jews prayed for them--first prayer--
+every Sabbath of the year, calling down blessings on their heads
+for charitable service rendered.
+
+One hardly goes all the way to Palestine to meet Americans;  but
+a journalist can't afford to be wilfully ignorant.  A British
+official assured me they were "good blokes" and an Armenian told
+me they could skin fleas for their hides and tallow;  but the
+Armenian was wearing a good suit, and eating good food, which he
+admitted had been given to him by the American Colony.  He was
+bitter with them because they had refused to cash a draft on
+Mosul, drawn on a bank that had ceased to exist.
+
+It seemed a good idea to call on the American Colony, at their
+store near the Jaffa Gate, and it turned out to be a very clean
+spot in a dirty city.  I taxed their generosity, and sat for
+hours on a ten-thousand-dollar pile of Asian rugs behind the
+store;  and, whatever I have missed and lost, or squandered, at
+least I know their story and can keep it until the proper time.
+
+Of course, you have to allow for point of view, just as the
+mariner allows for variation and deviation;  but when they
+inferred that most of the constructive good that has come to the
+Near East in the last fifty years has been American, they spoke
+with the authority of men who have lived on the spot and watched
+it happen.
+
+"You see, the Americans who have come here haven't set up
+governments.  They've opened schools and colleges.  They've
+poured in education, and taken nothing.  Then there are thousands
+of Arabs, living in hovels because there's nothing better, who
+have been to America and brought back memories with them.  All
+that accounts for the desire for an American mandate--which would
+be a very bad thing, though, because the moment we set up a
+government we would lose our chance to be disinterested.  The
+country is better off under any other mandate, provided it gives
+Americans the right to teach without ruling.  America's mission
+is educational.  There's an American, though, who might seem to
+prove the contrary.  Do you see him?"
+
+There were two Arabs in the room, talking in low tones over by
+the window. I could imagine the smaller of the two as a peddler
+of lace and filigree-silver in the States, who had taken out
+papers for the sake of privilege and returned full of notions to
+exploit his motherland.  But the tall one--never.  He was a
+Bedouin, if ever a son of the desert breathed.  If he had visited
+the States, then he had come back as unchanged as gold out of an
+acid bath;  and as for being born there--
+
+"That little beady-eyed, rat-faced fellow may be an American," I
+said.  "In fact, of course he is, since you say so.  But as for
+being up to any good--"
+
+"You're mistaken.  You're looking at the wrong man.  Observe the
+other one."
+
+I was more than ever sure I was not mistaken.  Stately gesture,
+dignity, complexion, attitude--to say nothing of his Bedouin
+array and the steadiness with which he kept his dark eyes fixed
+on the smaller man he was talking to, had laid the stamp of the
+desert on the taller man from head to heel.
+
+"That tall man is an American officer in the British army.
+Doesn't look the part, eh?  They say he was the first American to
+be granted a commission without any pretense of his being a
+Canadian.  They accepted him as an American.  It was a case of
+that or nothing.  Lived here for years, and knew the country so
+well that they felt they had to have him on his own terms."
+
+
+You can believe anything in Jerusalem after you have been in the
+place a week or two, so, seeing who my informant was, I swallowed
+the fact.  But it was a marvel.  It seemed even greater when the
+man strolled out, pausing to salute my host with the solemn
+politeness that warfare with the desert breeds.  You could not
+imagine that at Ellis Island, or on Broadway--even on the stage.
+It was too untheatrical to be acting;  too individual to be
+imitation;  to unself-conscious to have been acquired.  I
+hazarded a guess.
+
+"A red man, then.  Carlisle for education.  Swallowed again by
+the first desert he stayed in for more than a week."
+
+"Wrong.  His name is Grim.  Sounds like Scandinavian ancestry, on
+one side.  James Schuyler Grim--Dutch, then, on the other;  and
+some English.  Ten generations in the States at any rate.  He can
+tell you all about this country.  Why not call on him?"
+
+It did not need much intelligence to agree to that suggestion;
+but the British military take their code with them to the
+uttermost ends of earth, behind which they wonder why so many
+folks with different codes, or none, dislike them.
+
+"Write me an introduction," I said.
+
+"You won't need one.  Just call on him.  He lives at a place they
+call the junior Staff Officers' Mess--up beyond the Russian
+Convent and below the Zionist Hospital."
+
+So I went that evening, finding the way with difficulty because
+they talk at least eighteen languages in Jerusalem and, with the
+exception of official residences, no names were posted anywhere.
+That was not an official residence.  It was a sort of communal
+boarding-house improvised by a dozen or so officers in preference
+to the bug-laden inconvenience of tents--in a German-owned
+(therefore enemy property) stone house at the end of an alley, in
+a garden full of blooming pomegranates.
+
+I sent my card in by a flat-footed old Russian female, who ran
+down passages and round corners like a wet hen, trying to find a
+man-servant.  The place seemed deserted, but presently she came
+on her quarry in the back yard, and a very small boy in a
+tarboosh and knickerbockers carried the card on a tray into a
+room on the left.  Through the open door I could hear one quiet
+question and a high-pitched disclaimer of all knowledge;  then an
+order, sounding like a grumble, and the small boy returned to the
+hall to invite me in, in reasonably good English, of which he
+seemed prouder than I of my Arabic.
+
+So I went into the room on the left, with that Bedouin still in
+mind.  There was only one man in there, who got out of a deep
+armchair as I entered, marking his place in a book with a
+Damascus dagger.  He did not look much more than middle height,
+nor more than medium dark complexioned, and he wore a major's
+khaki uniform.
+
+"Beg pardon," I said.  "I've disturbed the wrong man.  I came to
+call on an American named Major Grim."
+
+"I'm Grim."
+
+"Must be a mistake, though.  The man I'm looking for is taller
+than you--very dark--looks, walks, speaks and acts like a
+Bedouin.  I saw him this afternoon in Bedouin costume in the
+American Colony store."
+
+"Yes, I noticed you.  Sit down, won't you?  Yes, I'm he--the
+Bedouin abayi* seems to add to a man's height.  Soap and water
+account for the rest of it.  These cigars are from the States."
+[*Long-sleeved outer cloak.]
+
+It was hard to believe, even on the strength of his straight
+statement--he talking undisguised American, and smiling at me, no
+doubt vastly pleased with my incredulity.
+
+"Are you a case of Jekyll and Hyde?" I asked.
+
+"No.  I'm more like both sides of a sandwich with some army mule-
+meat in the middle.  But I won't be interviewed.  I hate it.
+Besides, it's against the regulations."
+
+His voice was not quite so harshly nasal as those of the Middle
+West, but he had not picked up the ultra-English drawl and
+clipped-off consonants that so many Americans affect abroad
+and overdo.
+
+I don't think a wise crook would have chosen him as a subject for
+experiments.  He had dark eyes with noticeably long lashes;
+heavy eyebrows;  what the army examination-sheets describe as a
+medium chin;  rather large hands with long, straight fingers;
+and feet such as an athlete stands on, fully big for his size,
+but well shaped.  He was young for a major--somewhere between
+thirty and thirty-five.
+
+Once he was satisfied that I would not write him up for the
+newspapers he showed no disinclination to talk, although it was
+difficult to keep him on the subject of himself, and easy to let
+him lose you in a maze of tribal history.  He seemed to know the
+ins and outs of every blood-feud from Beersheba to Damascus, and
+warmed to his subject as you listened.
+
+"You see," he said, by way of apology when I laughed at a string
+of names that to me conjured up only confusion, "my beat is all
+the way from Cairo to Aleppo--both sides of the Jordan.  I'm not
+on the regular strength, but attached to the Intelligence--no,
+not permanent--don't know what the future has in store--that
+probably depends on whether or not the Zionists get full control,
+and how soon.  Meanwhile, I'm my own boss more or less--report
+direct to the Administrator, and he's one of those men who allows
+you lots of scope."
+
+That was the sort of occasional glimpse he gave of himself, and
+then switched off into straight statements about the Zionist
+problem.  All his statements were unqualified, and given with the
+air of knowing all about it right from the beginning.
+
+"There's nothing here that really matters outside the Zionist-
+Arab problem.  But that's a big one.  People don't realize it--
+even on the spot--but it's a world movement with ramifications
+everywhere.  All the other politics of the Near East hinge on it,
+even when it doesn't appear so on the surface.  You see, the Jews
+have international affiliations through banks and commerce.  They
+have blood-relations everywhere.  A ripple here may mean there's
+a wave in Russia, or London, or New York.  I've known at least
+one Arab blood-feud over here that began with a quarrel between a
+Jew and a Christian in Chicago."
+
+"Are the Zionists as dangerous as the Arabs seem to think?" I asked.
+
+"Yes and no.  Depends what you call danger.  They're like an
+incoming tide.  All you can do is accept the fact and ride on top
+of it, move away in front of it, or go under.  The Arabs want to
+push it back with sword-blades.  Can't be done!"
+
+"Speaking as a mere onlooker, I feel sorry for the Arabs," I
+said.  "It has been their country for several hundred years.
+They didn't even drive the Jews out of it;  the Romans attended
+to that, after the Assyrians and Babylonians had cleaned up
+nine-tenths of the population.  And at that, the Jews were
+invaders themselves."
+
+"Sure," Grim answered.  "But you can't argue with tides.  The
+Arabs are sore, and nobody has any right to blame them.  The
+English betrayed the Arabs--I don't mean the fellows out here,
+but the gang at the Foreign Office."
+
+I glanced at his uniform.  That was a strange statement coming
+from a man who wore it.  He understood, and laughed.
+
+"Oh, the men out here all admit it.  They're as sore as the Arabs
+are themselves."
+
+"Then you're on the wrong side, and you know it?" I suggested.
+
+"The meat," he said, "is in the middle of the sandwich.  In a
+small way you might say I'm a doctor, staying on after a riot to
+stitch up cuts.  The quarrel was none of my making, although I
+was in it and did what I could to help against the Turks.  Like
+everybody else who knows them, I admire the Turks and hate what
+they stand for--hate their cruelty.  I was with Lawrence across
+the Jordan--went all the way to Damascus with him--saw the war
+through to a finish--in case you choose to call it finished."
+
+Vainly I tried to pin him down to personal reminiscences.  He was
+not interested in his own story.
+
+"The British promised old King Hussein of Mecca that if he'd
+raise an Arab army to use against the Turks, there should be a
+united Arab kingdom afterward under a ruler of their own
+choosing.  The kingdom was to include Syria, Arabia and
+Palestine.  The French agreed.  Well, the Arabs raised the army;
+Emir Feisul, King Hussein's third son, commanded it;  Lawrence
+did so well that he became a legend.  The result was, Allenby
+could concentrate his army on this side of the Jordan and
+clean up.  He made a good job of it.  The Arabs were naturally
+cock-a-hoop."
+
+I suggested that the Arabs with that great army could have
+enforced the contract, but he laughed again.
+
+"They were being paid in gold by the British, and had Lawrence to
+hold them together.  The flow of gold stopped, and Lawrence was
+sent home.  Somebody at the Foreign Office had changed his mind.
+You see, they were all taken by surprise at the speed of
+Allenby's campaign.  The Zionists saw their chance, and claimed
+Palestine.  No doubt they had money and influence.  Perhaps it
+was Jewish gold that had paid the wages of the Arab army.
+Anyhow, the French laid claim to Syria.  By the time the war was
+over the Zionists had a hard-and-fast guarantee, the French claim
+to Syria had been admitted, and there wasn't any country left
+except some Arabian desert to let the Arabs have.  That's the
+situation.  Feisul is in Damascus, going through the farce of
+being proclaimed king, with the French holding the sea-ports and
+getting ready to oust him.  The Zionists are in Jerusalem,
+working like beavers, and the British are getting ready to pull
+out as much as possible and leave the Zionists to do their own
+worrying.  Mesopotamia is in a state of more or less anarchy.
+Egypt is like a hot-box full of explosive--may go off any minute.
+The Arabs would like to challenge the world to mortal combat,
+and then fight one another while the rest of the world pays
+the bill--"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"The French, for instance.  Their army is weak at the moment.
+They've neither men nor money--only a hunger to own Syria.  They
+don't play what the English call 'on side.'  They play a mean
+game.  The French General Staff figure that if Feisul should
+attack them now he might beat them.  So they've conceived the
+brilliant idea of spreading sedition and every kind of political
+discontent into Palestine and across the Jordan, so that if the
+Arabs make an effort they'll make it simultaneously in both
+countries.  Then the British, being in the same mess with the
+French, would have to take the French side and make a joint
+campaign of it."
+
+"But don't the British know this?"
+
+"You bet they know it.  What's the Intelligence for?  The French
+are hiring all the Arab newspapers to preach against the British.
+A child could see it with his eyes shut."
+
+"Then why in thunder don't the British have a showdown?"
+
+"That's where the joker comes in.  The French know there's a sort
+of diplomatic credo at the London Foreign Office to the general
+effect that England and France have got to stand together or
+Europe will go to pieces.  The French are realists.  They bank
+on that.  They tread on British corns, out here, all they want
+to, while they toss bouquets, backed by airplanes, across the
+English Channel."
+
+"Then the war didn't end the old diplomacy?"
+
+"What a question!  But I haven't more than scratched the Near
+East surface for you yet.  There's Mustapha Kemal in Anatolia,
+leader of the Turkish Nationalists, no more dead or incapacitated
+than a possum.  He's playing for his own hand--Kaiser Willy
+stuff--studying Trotzky and Lenin, and flirting with Feisul's
+party on the side.  Then there's a Bolshevist element among the
+Zionists--got teeth, too.  There's an effort being made from
+India to intrigue among the Sikh troops employed in Palestine.
+There's a very strong party yelling for an American mandate.  The
+Armenians, poor devils, are pulling any string they can get hold
+of, in the hope that anything at all may happen.  The orthodox
+Jews are against the Zionists;  the Arabs are against them both,
+and furious with one another.  There's a pan-Islam movement on
+foot, and a pan-Turanian--both different, and opposed.  About 75
+per cent of the British are as pro-Arab as they dare be, but the
+rest are strong for the Zionists.  And the Administrator's
+neutral!--strong for law and order but taking no sides."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I'm one of the men who is trying to keep the peace."
+
+He invited me to stay to dinner.  The other members of the mess
+were trooping in, all his juniors, all obviously fond of him
+and boisterously irreverent of his rank.  Dinner under his
+chairmanship was a sort of school for repartee.  It was utterly
+unlike the usual British mess dinner.  If you shut your eyes for
+a minute you couldn't believe that any one present had ever worn
+a uniform.  I learned afterward that there was quite a little
+competition to get into that mess.
+
+After dinner most of them trooped out again, to dance with
+Zionist ladies at an institute affair.  But he and I stayed, and
+talked until midnight.  Before I left, the key of Palestine and
+Syria was in my hands.
+
+"You seem interested," he said, coming with me to the door.  "If
+you don't mind rough spots now and then, I'll try to show you a
+few things at first hand."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Two
+
+"No objection;  only a stipulation."
+
+
+The showmanship began much sooner than I hoped.  The following
+day was Sunday, and I had an invitation to a sort of semi-public
+tea given by the American Colony after their afternoon religious
+service.
+
+They received their guests in a huge, well-furnished room on the
+upper floor of a stone house built around a courtyard filled with
+flowers.  I think they were a little proud of the number of
+fierce-looking Arabs, who had traveled long distances in order to
+be present.  Ten Arab chieftains in full costume, with fifteen or
+twenty of their followers, all there at great expense of trouble,
+time and money, for friends sake, were, after all, something to
+feel a bit chesty about.  Every member of the Colony seemed able
+to talk Arabic like a native and, as they used to say in the up-
+state papers, a good time was being had by all.  The Near East
+adores ice-cream, and there was lots of it.
+
+Two of the Arab chiefs were Christians;  the rest were not.  The
+peace and war record of the Colony was what had brought them all
+there.  Hardly an Arab in the country was not the Colony's debtor
+for disinterested help, direct or indirect, at some time in some
+way.  The American Colony was the one place in the country where
+a man of any creed could go and be sure that whatever he might
+say would not be used against him.  So they were talking their
+heads off.  Hot air and Arab politics have quite a lot in common.
+But there was a broad desert-breath about it all.  It wasn't like
+the little gusty yaps you hear in the city coffee-shops.  A lot
+of the talk was foolish, but it was all magnificent.
+
+There was one sheikh named Mustapha ben Nasir dressed in a blue
+serge suit and patent-leather boots, with nothing to show his
+nationality except a striped silk head-dress with the camel-hair
+band around the forehead.  He was a handsome fellow, with a black
+beard trimmed to a point, and perfect manners, polished no doubt
+in a dozen countries, but still Eastern in slow, deferential
+dignity.  He could talk good French.  I fell in conversation
+with him.
+
+The frankness with which treason is mooted, admitted and
+discussed in the Near East is one of the first things that amaze
+you.  They are so open about it that nobody takes them seriously.
+Apparently it is only when they don't talk treason openly that
+the ruling authorities get curious and make arrests.  To me, a
+total stranger, with nothing to recommend me but that for an hour
+or two that afternoon I was a guest of the American Colony,
+Mustapha ben Nasir made no bones whatever about the fact that the
+was being paid by the French to stir up feeling over Jordan
+against the British.
+
+"I receive a monthly salary," he boasted.  "I am just from
+Damascus, where the French Liaison-officer paid me and gave me
+some instructions."
+
+"Where is your home?" I asked him.
+
+"At El-Kerak, in the mountains of Moab, across the Dead Sea.  I
+start this evening.  Will you come with me?"
+
+"Je m'en bien garderai!"
+
+He smiled.  "Myself, I am in favor of the British.  The French
+pay my expenses, that is all.  What we all want is an independent
+Arab government--some say kingdom, some say republic.  If it is
+not time for that yet, then we would choose an American mandate.
+But America has deserted us.  Failing America, we prefer the
+English for the present.  Anything except France!  We do not want
+to become a new Algeria."
+
+"What is the condition now at El-Kerak?"
+
+"Condition?  There is none.  There is chaos.  You see, the
+British say their authority ceases at the River Jordan and at a
+line drawn down the middle of the Dead Sea.  That leaves us with
+a choice between two other governments--King Hussein's government
+of Mecca, and Feisul's in Syria.  But Hussein's arm is not long
+enough to reach us from the South, and Feisul's is not nearly
+strong enough to interfere from the North.  So there is
+no government, and each man is keeping the peace with his
+own sword."
+
+"You mean;  each man on his own account?"
+
+"Yes.  So there is peace.  Five--fifteen--thirty throats are cut
+daily;  and if you go down to the Jordan and listen, you will
+hear the shots being fired from ambush any day."
+
+"And you invite me to make the trip with you?"
+
+"Oh, that is nothing.  In the first place, you are American.
+Nobody will interfere with an American.  They are welcome.  In
+the second place, there is a good reason for bringing you;  we
+all want an American school at El-Kerak."
+
+"But I am no teacher."
+
+"But you will be returning to America?  It is enough, then, that
+you look the situation over, and tell what you know on your
+return.  We will provide a building, a proper salary, and
+guarantee the teacher's life.  We would prefer a woman, but it
+would be wisest to send a man."
+
+"How so?  The woman might not shoot straight?  I've some of our
+Western women do tricks with a gun that would--"
+
+"There would be no need.  She would have our word of honour.  But
+every sheikh who has only three wives would want to make her his
+fourth.  A man would be best.  Will you come with me?"
+
+"On your single undertaking to protect me?  Are you king of all
+that countryside?"
+
+"If you will come, you shall have an escort, every man of whom
+will die before he would let you be killed.  And if they, and
+you, should all be killed, their sons and grandsons would avenge
+you to the third generation of your murderers."
+
+"That's undoubtedly handsome, but--"
+
+"Believe me, effendi," he urged, "many a soul has been consoled
+in hell-fire by the knowledge that his adversaries would be cut
+off in their prime by friends who are true to their given word."
+
+Meaning to back out politely, I assured him I would think the
+offer over.
+
+"Well and good," he answered.  "You have my promise.  Should you
+decide to come, leave word here with the American Colony.  They
+will get word to me.  Then I will send for you, and the escort
+shall meet you at the Dead Sea."
+
+I talked it over with two or three members of the Colony, and
+they assured me the promise could be depended on.  One of
+them added:
+
+"Besides, you ought to see El-Kerak.  It's an old crusader city,
+rather ruined, but more or less the way the crusaders left it.
+And that craving of theirs for a school is worth doing something
+about, if you ever have an opportunity.  They say they have too
+much religion already, and no enlightenment at all.  A teacher
+who knew Arabic would have a first-class time, and would be well
+paid and protected, if he could keep his hands off politics.  Why
+not talk with Major Grim?"
+
+It was a half-hour's walk to Grim's place, but I had the good
+fortune to catch him in again.  He was sitting in the same chair,
+studying the same book, and this time I saw the title of it--
+Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean--a strange book for a soldier
+to be reading, and cutting its pages with an inlaid dagger, in a
+Jerusalem semi-military boarding-house.  But he was a man of
+unexpectedly assorted moods.
+
+He laughed when I told of ben Nasir.  He looked serious when I
+mooted El-Kerak--serious, then interested, them speculative.
+From where I sat I could watch the changes in his eyes.
+
+"What would the escort amount to?" I asked him.
+
+"Absolute security."
+
+"And what's this bunk about Americans being welcome anywhere?"
+
+"Perfectly true.  All the way from Aleppo down to Beersheba.  Men
+like Dr. Bliss* have made such an impression that an occasional
+rotter might easily take advantage of it.  Americans in this
+country--so far--stand for altruism without ulterior motive.
+If we'd accepted the mandate they might have found us out!
+Meanwhile, an American is safe."  [*President of the American
+College at Beirut.  Died 1920, probably more respected throughout
+the Near East than any ten men of any other nationality.]
+
+"Then I think I'll go to El-Kerak."
+
+Again his eyes grew speculative.  I could not tell whether he was
+considering me or some problem of his own.
+
+"Speaking unofficially," he said, "there are two possibilities.
+You might go without permission--easy enough, provided you don't
+talk beforehand.  In that case, you'd get there and back;  after
+which, the Administration would label and index you.  The
+remainder of your stay in Palestine would be about as exciting
+as pushing a perambulator in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.  You'd
+be canned."
+
+"I'd rather be killed.  What's the alternative?"
+
+"Get permission.  I shall be at El-Kerak myself within the next
+few days.  I think it can be arranged."
+
+"D'you mean I can go with you?" I asked, as eager as a schoolboy
+for the circus.
+
+"Not on your life!  I don't go as an American."
+
+Recalling the first time I had seen him, I sat still and tried to
+look like a person who was not thrilled in the least by seeing
+secrets from the inside.
+
+"Well," I said, "I'm in your hands."
+
+I think he rather liked that.  As I came to know him more
+intimately later on he revealed an iron delight in being trusted.
+But he did not say another word for several minutes, as if there
+were maps in his mind that he was conning before reaching a
+decision.  Then he spoke suddenly.
+
+"Are you busy?" he asked.  "Then come with me."
+
+He phoned to some place or other for a staff automobile, and the
+man was there with it within three minutes.  We piled in and
+drove at totally unholy speed down narrow streets between walls,
+around blind right-angle turns where Arab policemen stood waving
+unintelligible signals, and up the Mount of Olives, past the
+British military grave-yard, to the place they call OETA.*  The
+Kaiser had it built to command every view of the countryside and
+be seen from everywhere, as a monument to his own greatness--the
+biggest, lordliest, most expensive hospice that his architects
+could fashion, with pictures in mosaic on the walls and ceilings
+of the Kaiser and his ancestors in league with the Almighty.  But
+the British had adopted it as Administration Headquarters.
+[*Headquarters:  Occupied Enemy Territory Administration.]
+
+All the way up, behind and in front and on either hand, there
+were views that millions* would give years of their lives to see;
+and they would get good value for their bargain.  Behind us, the
+sky-line was a panorama of the Holy City, domes, minarets and
+curved stone roofs rising irregularly above gray battlemented
+walls.  Down on the right was the ghastly valley of Jehoshaphat,
+treeless, dry, and crowded with white tombs--"dry bones in the
+valley of death."  To the left were everlasting limestone hills,
+one of them topped by the ruined reputed tomb of Samuel--all
+trenched, cross-trenched and war-scarred, but covered now in a
+Joseph's coat of flowers, blue, blood-red, yellow and white. [*
+This is no exaggeration.  There are actually millions, and on
+more than one continent, whose dearest wish, could they have it,
+would be to see Jerusalem before they die.]
+
+There were lines of camels sauntering majestically along three
+hill-tops, making time, and the speed of the car we rode in, seem
+utterly unreal.  And as we topped the hill the Dead Sea lay below
+us, like a polished turquoise set in the yellow gold of the
+barren Moab Mountains.  That view made you gasp.  Even Grim, who
+was used to it, could not turn his eyes away.
+
+We whirled past saluting Sikhs at the pompous Kaiserish entrance
+gate, and got out on to front steps that brought to mind one of
+those glittering hotels at German cure-resorts--bad art, bad
+taste, bad amusements and a big bill.
+
+But inside, in the echoing stone corridors that opened through
+Gothic windows on a courtyard, in which statues of German super-
+people stared with blind eyes, there was nothing now but bald
+military neatness and economy.  Hurrying up an uncarpeted stone
+stairway (Grim seemed to be a speed-demon once his mind was set)
+we followed a corridor around two sides of the square, past
+dozens of closed doors bearing department names, to the
+Administrator's quarters at the far end.  There, on a bare bench
+in a barren ante-room, Grim left me to cool my heels.  He
+knocked, and entered a door marked "private."
+
+It was fully half an hour before the door opened again and I was
+beckoned in.  Grim was alone in the room with the Administrator,
+a rather small, lean, rigidly set up man, with merry fire in his
+eye, and an instantly obvious gift for being obeyed.  He sat at
+an enormous desk, but would have looked more at ease in a tent,
+or on horseback.  The three long rows of campaign ribbons looked
+incongruous beside the bunch of flowers that somebody had crammed
+into a Damascus vase on the desk, with the estimable military
+notion of making the utmost use of space.
+
+Sir Louis was certainly in an excellent temper.  He offered me a
+chair, and looked at me with a sort of practical good-humour that
+seemed to say, "Well, here he is;  now how shall we handle him?"
+I was minded to ask outright for what I wanted, but something in
+his attitude revealed that he knew all that already and would
+prefer to come at the problem in his own way.  It was clear,
+without a word being said, that he proposed to make some sort of
+use of me without being so indiscreet as to admit it.  He
+reminded me rather of Julius Caesar, who was also a little man,
+considering the probable qualifications of some minor spoke in a
+prodigious wheel of plans.
+
+"I understand you want to go to El-Kerak?" he said, smiling as if
+all life were an amusing game.
+
+I admitted the impeachment.  Grim was standing, some little way
+behind me and to one side;  I did not turn my head to look at
+him, for that might have given a false impression that he and I
+were in league together, but I was somehow aware that with folded
+arms he was studying me minutely.
+
+"Well," said Sir Louis, "there's no objection;  only a
+stipulation:  We wouldn't let an Englishman go, because of the
+risk--not to him, but to us.  Any fool has a right to get killed,
+but not to obligate his government.  All the missionaries were
+called in from those outlying districts long ago.  We don't want
+to be held liable for damages for failure to protect.  Such
+things have happened.  You see, the idea is, we assume no
+responsibility for what takes place beyond the Jordan and the
+Dead Sea.  Now, if you'd like to sign a letter waiving any claim
+against us for protection, that would remove any obstacle to your
+going.  But, if you think that unreasonable, the alternative is
+safe.  You can, stay in Jerusalem.  Quite simple."
+
+That had the merit of frankness.  It sounded fair enough.
+Nevertheless, he was certainly not being perfectly frank.  The
+merriment in his eyes meant something more than mere amusement.
+It occurred to me that his frankness took the extreme form of not
+concealing that he had something important in reserve.  I rather
+liked him for it.  His attitude seemed to be that if I wanted to
+take a chance, I might on my own responsibility, but that if my
+doing so should happen to suit his plans, that was his affair.
+Grim was still watching me the way a cat watches a mouse.
+
+"I'll sign such a letter," said I.
+
+"Good.  Here are pen and paper.  Let's have it all in your
+handwriting.  I'll call a clerk to witness the signature."
+
+I wrote down the simple statement that I wished to go to El-Kerak
+for personal reasons, and that I waived all claim against the
+British Administration for personal protection, whether there or
+en route.  A clerk, who looked as if he could not have been hired
+to know, or understand, or remember anything without permission,
+came in answer to the bell.  I signed.  He witnessed.
+
+Sir Louis put the letter in a drawer, and the clerk went
+out again.
+
+"How soon will you go?"
+
+I told about the promised escort, and that a day or two would be
+needed to get word to ben Nasir.  I forgot that ben Nasir would
+not start before moonrise.  It appeared that Sir Louis knew more
+than he cared to admit.
+
+"Can't we get word to ben Nasir for him, Grim?"
+
+Grim nodded.  So did Sir Louis:
+
+"Good.  There'll be no need, then, for you to take any one into
+confidence," he said, turning to me again.  "As a rule it isn't
+well to talk about these things, because people get wrong ideas.
+There are others in Jerusalem who would like permission to go
+to El-Kerak."
+
+"I'll tell nobody."
+
+He nodded again.  He was still considering things in the back
+of his mind, while those intelligent, bright eyes smiled so
+disarmingly.
+
+"How do you propose to reach the Dead Sea?" he asked.  "Ben
+Nasir's escort will probably meet you on the shore on this side."
+
+"Oh, hire some sort of conveyance, I suppose."
+
+"Couldn't we lend him one of our cars, Grim?"
+
+Grim nodded again.
+
+"We'll do that.  Grim, can you get word to ben Nasir so that when
+the escort is ready he may send a messenger straight to the hotel
+with the information?  D'you get my meaning?"
+
+"Sure," said Grim, "nobody else need know then."
+
+"Very well," said Sir Louis.  He rose from his chair to intimate
+that the precise moment had arrived when I might leave without
+indiscretion.  It was not until I was outside the door that I
+realized that my permission was simply verbal, and that the only
+document that had changed hands had been signed by me.  Grim
+followed me into the ante-room after a minute.
+
+"Hadn't I better go back and ask for something in writing from
+him?" I suggested.
+
+"You wouldn't get it.  Anyhow, you're dealing with a gentleman.
+You needn't worry.  I was afraid once or twice you might be going
+to ask him questions.  He'd have canned you if you had.  Why
+didn't you?"
+
+I was not going to help Grim dissect my mental processes.
+
+"There's a delightful air of mystery," I said, "I'd hate to
+spoil it!"
+
+"Come up on the tower," he said. "There's just time before
+sunset.  If you've good eyes, I'll show you El-Kerak."
+
+It is an enormous tower.  The wireless apparatus connected with
+it can talk with Paris and Calcutta.  From the top you feel as if
+you were seeing "all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of
+time."  There are no other buildings to cut off the view or
+tamper with perspective.  The Dead Sea was growing dark.  The
+Moab Hills beyond it looked lonely and savage in silhouette.
+
+"Down there on your left is Jericho," said Grim.  "That winding
+creek beyond it is the Jordan.  As far eastward as that there's
+some peace.  Beyond that, there is hardly a rock that isn't used
+for ambush regularly.  Let your eye travel along the top of the
+hills--nearly as far as the end of the Dead Sea.  Now--d'you see
+where a touch of sunlight glints on something?  That's the top of
+the castle-wall of El-Kerak.  Judge what strategists those old
+crusaders were.  That site commands the ancient high road from
+Egypt.  They could sit up there and take toll to their hearts'
+content.  The Turks quartered troops in the castle and did the
+same thing.  But the Turks overdid it, like everything else.
+They ruined the trade.  No road there nowadays that amounts
+to anything."
+
+"It looks about ten miles away."
+
+"More than eighty."
+
+The sun went down behind us while we watched, and here and there
+the little scattered lights came out among the silent hills in
+proof that there were humans who thought of them in terms of
+home.
+
+Venus and Mars shone forth, yellow and red jewels;  then the
+moon, rising like a stage effect, too big, too strongly lighted
+to seem real, peering inch by inch above the hills and ushering
+in silence.  We could hear one muezzin in Jerusalem wailing that
+God is God.
+
+"That over yonder is savage country," Grim remarked.  "I think
+maybe you'll like it. Time to go now."
+
+He said nothing more until we were scooting downhill in the car
+in the midst of a cloud of dust.
+
+"You won't see me again," he said then, "until you get to El-
+Kerak.  There are just one or two points to bear in mind.  D'you
+care if I lecture?"
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+"When the messenger comes from ben Nasir, go to the Governorate,
+just outside the Damascus Gate, phone OETA, say who you are, and
+ask for the car.  Travel light.  The less you take with you, the
+less temptation there'll be to steal and that much less danger
+for your escort.  I always take nothing,  and get shaved by a
+murderer at the nearest village.  If you wash too much, or change
+your shirt too often, they suspect you of putting on airs.  Can't
+travel too light.  Use the car as far as Jericho, or thereabouts,
+and send it back when the messenger says he's through with it.
+After that, do whatever the leader of the escort tells you, and
+you'll be all right."
+
+"How do I cross the Dead Sea?"
+
+"That's ben Nasir's business.  There's another point I'll ask you
+to bear in mind.  When you see me at El-Kerak, be sure not to
+make the slightest sign of recognition, unless and until you
+get word from me.  Act as if you'd never seen me in your
+life before."
+
+I felt like an arch-conspirator, and there is no other sensation
+half so thrilling.  The flattery of being let in, as it were,
+through a secret door was like strong wine.
+
+"Is your memory good?" Grim asked me.  "If you make notes, be
+sure you let everybody see them;  you'll find more than one of
+them can read English.  If you should see or overhear anything
+that you'd particularly like to remember because it might prove
+useful to me, note it down by making faint dots under the letters
+of words you've already written;  or--better yet--take along a
+pocket Bible;  they're all religious and respect the Bible.  Make
+faint pencil lines underneath words or letters, and they'll think
+you're more than extra devout.  There's nothing special to watch
+out for;  just keep your ears and eyes open.  Well, here's your
+hotel.  See you again soon.  So long."
+
+I got out of the car and went to get ready for a Christian dinner
+served by Moslems, feeling like a person out of the Arabian
+Nights, who had just met the owner of a magic carpet on which one
+only had to sit in order to be wafted by invisible forces into
+unimaginable realms of mystery.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Three
+
+"Do whatever the leader of the escort tells you."
+
+
+I never learned exactly how Jim Grim got word to ben Nasir.  My
+suspicion is that he took the simple course of getting the
+American Colony to send one of their men;  but as they never
+referred to it afterwards, and might have their own reasons for
+keeping silence, I took care not to ask them.  We have most of us
+seen harm done by noisy gratitude for kindness, better covered up.
+
+I kept close to the hotel for three days, studying Arabic.  By
+the fourth afternoon discouragement set in.  I began to believe
+that the whole affair had petered out;  perhaps on reflection the
+Administrator had decided I was not a proper person to be turned
+loose out of bounds, and nobody could have blamed him for that,
+for he knew next to nothing about me.  Or Grim might have been
+called off for some other important business.  The chances seemed
+all against my going after all.
+
+But on the fourth evening, just at sunset, when the sandwiches I
+had ordered in advance were all thoroughly stale and I had almost
+decided to unpack the small hand-grip and try to forget the whole
+affair, I noticed an Arab standing in the door of the hotel
+scrutinizing every one who passed him.  I watched him for five
+minutes.  He paid no attention to officers in uniform.  I left my
+chair in the lobby and walked past him twice.
+
+He had one eye, like a gimlet on a universal joint;  he turned
+it this and that way without any corresponding movement of his
+head.  It penetrated.  You felt he could have seen you with it
+in the dark.
+
+I started to pass him a third time.  He held his hand out and
+thrust a small, soiled piece of paper into mine.  The writing on
+it was in Arabic, so I went back to the seat in the far corner,
+to puzzle it out, he standing meanwhile in the doorway and
+continuing to quiz people as if I had meant nothing in his life.
+The message was short enough:
+
+
+Bearer will accompany you to a place where the escort will
+be in readiness.  God give your honour a good journey.  Mustapha
+Ben Nasir.
+
+
+I went to the Governorate and phoned for the car to come and pick
+me up outside the Jaffa Gate.  The Arab followed me, and he and I
+were both searched at the gate for weapons, by a Sikh who knew
+nothing and cared less about Near East politics.  His orders were
+to search thoroughly.  He did it.  The man whose turn was next
+ahead of mine was a Russian priest, whose long black cloak did
+not save him from painstaking suspicion.  He was still
+indignantly refusing to take down his pants and prove that the
+hard lump on his thigh was really an amulet against sciatica,
+when the car came for me.
+
+It was an ordinary Ford car, and the driver was not in uniform.
+He, too, had only one eye in full commission, for the other was
+bruised and father swollen.  I got in beside him and let the Arab
+have the rear seat to himself, reflecting that I would be able to
+smell all the Arab sweat I cared to in the days to come.
+
+We are governed much more by our noses than we are often aware
+of, and I believe that many people--in the East especially--use
+scent because intuition warns them that their true smell would
+arouse unconscious antagonism.  Dogs, as well as most wild
+animals, fight at the suggestion of a smell.  Humans only differ
+from the animals, much, when they are being self-consciously
+human.  Then they forget what they really know and tumble
+headlong into trouble.
+
+The driver seemed to know which road to take, and to be in no
+particular hurry, perhaps on account of his injured eye.  He was
+an ex-soldier, of course:  one of those under-sized Cockneys with
+the Whitechapel pallor overlying a pugnacious instinct, who make
+such astonishing fighting-men in the intervals between sulking
+and a sort of half-affectionate abuse of everything in sight.
+Being impatient to begin the adventure, I suggested more speed.
+
+"Oh!" he answered.  "So you're another o' these people in an
+'urry to get to Jericho!  It's strynge.  The last one was a
+Harab.  Tyke it from me, gov'nor, I've driven the very last
+Harab as gets more than twenty-five miles an hour out o' me,
+so 'elp me--"
+
+He tooled the car out on to the road toward Bethany, and down the
+steep hill that passes under the Garden of Gethsemane, before
+vouchsafing another word.  Then, as we started to climb the hill
+ahead, he jerked his chin in the direction of the sharp turn we
+had just passed in the bottom of the valley.  "Took that corner
+las' time on one wheel!"
+
+"For the Arab?"
+
+"Aye.  Taught me a lesson.  Never agayn!  I ain't no Arabian
+Night.  Nor yet no self-immolatin' 'Indoo invitin' no juggernauts
+to make no pancykes out o' me.  'Enceforth, I drives reasonable.
+All Harabs may go to 'ell for all o' me."
+
+He was itching to tell his story.  He was likely to tell it
+quicker for not being questioned;  your Cockney dislikes anything
+he can construe into inquisition.  I remarked that the road
+didn't seem made for speed--too narrow and too rough--and let it
+go at that.
+
+He said no more until we reached the village of Bethany, and drew
+abreast of Lazarus' reputed tomb, where a pack of scavenger-dogs
+awoke and yelped around the wheels.  He did his best to run
+over one of them, but missed.  Then he could not hold his story
+any longer.
+
+"Two nights ago," he said, "they gives me orders to take a Harab
+to a point near Jericho.  After dark, I starts off, 'im on the
+back seat;  engine ain't warm yet, so we goes slow.  He leans
+forward after a couple o' minutes, an says 'Yalla kawam'!" *  So
+I thinks to myself I'll show the blighter a thing or two, me not
+bein' used to takin' orders from no Harabs.  Soon as the engine's
+'ot I lets rip, an' you know now what the road's like.  When we
+gets to the top o' that 'ill above Gethsemane I lets extry
+special rip.  Thinks I, if you can stand what I can, my son,
+you've guts. [*Hurry up.]
+
+"Well, we 'its all the 'igh places, and lands on a bit o' level
+road just often enough to pick up more speed--comes round that
+sharp bend on 'alf a wheel, syme as I told you--kills three pye-
+dogs for sure, an' maybe others, but I don't dare look round--
+misses a camel in the dark that close that the 'air on my arms
+an' legs fair crawled up an' down me--'it's a lump o' rock that
+comes near tippin' us into the ditch--an' carries on faster an'
+ever.  By the time we gets 'ere to Bethany, thinks I, it's time
+to take a look an' see if my passenger's still in the bloomin'
+car.  So I slows down.
+
+"The minute I turns my 'ead to 'ave a peer at 'im.  'Kawam!' 'e
+says. 'Quick!  Quick!'
+
+"So it strikes me I weren't in no such 'urry after all.  Why
+'urry for a Harab?  The car's been rattlin' worse 'n a tinker's
+basket.  I gets down to lave a look--lights a gasper*--an' takes
+my bloomin' time about it.  You seen them yellow curs there by
+Lazarus' tomb?  Well, they come for me, yappin' an' snarlin' to
+beat 'ell.  I'm pickin' up stones to break their 'eads with--good
+stones ain't such easy findin' in the dark, an' every time I
+stoops 'alf a dozen curs makes a rush for me--when what d'you
+suppose?  That bloomin' Harab passenger o' mine vaults over into
+my seat, an' afore I could say ''ell's bells' 'e's off.  I'd left
+the engine runnin'.  By the luck o' the Lord I 'angs on, an'
+scrambles in--back seat. [*Anglice--canteen cigarette.]
+
+"I thought at first I'd reach over an' get a half-nelson on 'im
+from behind.  But, strike me blind!  I didn't dare!
+
+"Look where we are now.  Can you see the 'air-pin turn at the
+bottom of this 'ill, with a ditch, beyond it?  Well, we takes
+that turn in pitch-dark shadow with all four wheels in the air,
+an' you'd 'a thought we was a blinkin' airplane a doin' stunts.
+But 'e's a hexpert, 'e is, an' we 'olds the road.  From there on
+we goes in one 'oly murderin' streak to a point about 'alf-way up
+the 'ill where the Inn of the Good Samaritan stands on top.
+There we 'as two blow-outs simultaneous, an' thinks I, now, my
+son, I've got you!  I gets out.
+
+"'You can drive,' I says, 'like Jehu son o' Nimshi what made
+Israel to sin.  Let's see you make bricks now without no bleedin'
+straw'!  I knew there weren't no tools under the seat--there
+never are in this 'ere country if you've left your car out o'
+your sight for five minutes.  'You take off them two back tires,'
+I says, 'while I sit 'ere an meditate on the ways of Harabs!
+Maybe you're Moses,' I says, 'an know 'ow to work a miracle.'
+
+"But the only miracle about that bloke's 'is nerve.  'E gets out,
+'an begins to walk straight on up'ill without as much as a by-
+your-leave.  I shouts to 'im to come back.  But 'e walks on.  So
+I picks up a stone off the pile I was sittin' on, an' I plugs 'im
+good--'its 'im fair between the shoulder-blades.  You'd think, if
+'e was a Harab, that'ud bring 'im to 'is senses, wouldn't you?
+But what d'you suppose the blighter did?
+
+"Did you notice my left eye when you got in the car?  'E turns
+back, an' thinks I, 'e's goin' to knife me.  But that sport could
+use 'is fists, an' believe me, 'e done it!  I can use 'em a bit
+myself, an' I starts in to knock 'is block off, but 'e puts it
+all over me--weight, reach an' science.  Mind you, science!
+First Arab ever I see what 'ad science;  an' I don't more than
+'alf believe it now!
+
+"Got to 'and it to 'im.  'E was merciful.  'E let up on me the
+minute 'e see I'd 'ad enough.  'E starts off up'ill again.  I
+sits where 'e'd knocked me on to a stone pile, wishin' like 'ell
+for a drink.  It was full moonlight, an' you could see for miles.
+After about fifteen minutes, me still meditatin' murder an'
+considerin' my thirst I seen 'em fetch a camel out o' the khan at
+the Inn o' the Good Samaritan;  an' next thing you know, 'e's out
+o' sight.  Thinks I, that's the last of 'im, an' good riddance!
+But not a bit of it!
+
+"The men what fetched the camel for 'im comes down to me an' says
+the sheikh 'as left word I'm to be fed an' looked after.  They
+fixes me up at the inn with a cot an' blankets an' a supper o'
+sorts, an' I lies awake listenin' to 'em talkin' Arabic,
+understandin' maybe one word out of six or seven.  From what I
+can make o' their conjecturin', they think 'e ain't no sheikh at
+all, but a bloomin' British officer in disguise!
+
+"Soon as morning comes I jump a passing commissariat lorry.  As
+soon as I gets to Jerusalem I reports that sheikh for arson,
+theft, felo de se, busting a gov'ment car, usin' 'is fists when
+by right 'e should ha' knifed me, an' every other crime I could
+think of.  An' all I gets is laughed at!  What d'you make of it?
+Think 'e was a Harab?"
+
+I wondered whether he was Jimgrim, but did not say so.  Grim had
+not appeared to me like a man who would use his fists at all
+readily;  but he was such an unusual individual that it was
+useless trying to outline what he might or might not do.  It was
+also quite likely that the chauffeur had omitted mention of, say,
+nine-tenths of the provocation he gave his passenger.  What
+interested me most was the thought that, if that really was
+Jimgrim, he must have been in a prodigious hurry about something;
+and that most likely meant excitement, if not danger across the
+Dead Sea.
+
+We caught sight of the Dead Sea presently, bowling past the Inn
+of the Good Samaritan and beginning to descend into the valley,
+twelve hundred feet below sea level, that separates Palestine
+from Moab.  The moon shone full on the water, and it looked more
+wan and wild than an illustration out of Dante's Inferno.  There
+was no doubt how the legends sprang up about birds falling dead
+as they flew across it.  It was difficult to believe that
+anything could be there and not die.  It was a vision of the land
+of death made beautiful.
+
+But the one-eyed Arab on the rear seat began to sing.  To him
+that view meant "home, sweet home."  His song was all about his
+village and how he loved it--what a pearl it was--how sweeter
+than all cities.
+
+"'Ark at 'im!" The driver stopped the car to fill his pipe.
+"You'd think 'e lived in 'eaven!  I've fought over every hinch o'
+this perishin' country, an' tyke it from me, guv'nor, there ain't
+a village in it but what's composed of 'ovels wi' thatched roofs,
+an' 'eaps o' dung so you can't walk between 'em!  Any one as
+wants my share o' Palestine can 'ave it!"
+
+We bumped on again down a road so lonely that it would have felt
+good to see a wild beast, or an armed man lurking in wait for us.
+But the British had accomplished the impossible:  They had so
+laid the fear of law along those roads that, though there might
+be murders to the right and left of them, the passer-by who kept
+to the road was safe, for the first time since the Romans now and
+then imposed a temporary peace.
+
+At last, like two yellow streams glistening in moonlight, the
+road forked--one way toward Jericho.  The other way appeared
+to run more or less parallel with the Dead Sea.  At that point
+the one-eyed Arab left off singing at last and clutched the
+driver's shoulder.
+
+"All right!  All right!" he answered impatiently, and stopped.
+"Out you get, then!"
+
+He did not expect the tip I gave him.  He seemed to think it
+placed him under obligation to wait there and talk for a few
+minutes.  But my one-eyed guide waved him away disgustedly with
+the hand that did not hold my bag, and we stood in the road
+watching until he vanished up-hill out of sight.  Then the guide
+plucked my sleeve and I followed him along the righthand road.
+We walked half a mile as fast as he could set foot to the ground.
+
+At last we reached a pretense of a village--a little cluster of
+half-a-dozen thatched stone huts enclosed within one fence of
+thorn and cactus.  Everything showed up as clearly in the
+moonlight as if painted with phosphorus.  The heavy shadows only
+made the high lights seem more luminous.  A man and two donkeys
+were waiting for us outside the thorn hedge.  The man made no
+remark.  My guide and I mounted and rode on.
+
+Presently we turned down a track toward the Dead Sea, riding
+among huge shadows cast by the hills on our right hand.  The
+little jackals they call foxes crossed our path at intervals.
+Owls the size of a robin, only vastly fluffier, screamed from the
+rocks as we passed them.  Otherwise, it was like a soul's last
+journey, eerie, lonely and awful, down toward River Styx.
+
+Long before we caught sight of the water again, through a ragged
+gap between high limestone rocks, I could smell a village.  The
+guide approached it cautiously, stopping every minute or so to
+listen.  When we came on it at last it was down below us in
+abysmal darkness, one light shining through a window two feet
+square in proof we were not hesitating on the verge of the
+infinite pit.
+
+The donkeys knew the way.  They trod daintily, like little
+ladies, along a circling track that goats made and men had
+certainly done nothing to improve.  We made an almost complete
+ellipse around and down, and rode at last over dry dung at the
+bottom, into which the donkeys' feet sank as into a three-pile
+carpet.  You could see the stars overhead, but nothing, where we
+were, except that window and a shaft of yellow light with
+hundreds of moths dazzled in it.
+
+We must have made some noise in spite of the donkeys' vetvet
+foot-fall.  As we crossed the shaft of light a door opened within
+six feet of the window.  A man in Arab deshabille with a red
+tarboosh awry, thrust out his head and drew it in again quickly.
+
+"Is that the American?" he asked.  He held the door so that he
+could slam it in our faces if required.
+
+The guide made no answer.  I gave my name.  The man opened the
+door wider.
+
+"Lailtak sa'idi, effendi!  Hishkur Allah!  Come in, mister!"  The
+guide led the donkeys away to some invisible place.  I crossed
+the threshold, my host holding his tin lantern carefully to show
+the two steps leading down to a flag-stone floor.  He bolted the
+door the moment I was inside.  He seemed in a great state of
+excitement, and afraid to make any noise.  Even when he shot the
+bolt he did it silently.
+
+It was a square room, moderately clean, furnished only with a
+table and two chairs.  There were other rooms leading off it, but
+the stone partitions did not reach as high as the thatch and I
+could hear rustling, and some one snoring.  I sat on one of the
+chairs at his invitation, and rather hoped for supper, having had
+none.  But supper was not in his mind;  it seemed he had too much
+else to worry him.  He looked like a man who worried easily, and
+likely enough with good reason, for his long nose and narrow eyes
+did not suggest honesty.
+
+"There was to be an escort to meet me here," I said.
+
+"Yes, yes.  Thank God, mister, you have come at last.  If you had
+only come at sunset!  Ali has gone to bring them now."
+
+"Who is Ali?"
+
+"He with one eye.  He who brought you.  Your escort came at
+sunset.  Because I am Christian they would not listen to me or
+wait for you in my house.  There are twenty of them, led by
+Anazeh, who is a bad rascal.  They have gone to raid the
+villages.  There has been trouble.  I have heard two shots fired.
+Now they will come back to my house, and if the Sikh patrol is
+after them they will be caught here, and I shall be accused of
+helping them.  May the fires of their lying Prophet's Eblis
+burn Anazeh and his men forever and ever, Amen!  May God curse
+their religion!"
+
+That was a nice state of affairs.  I did not want to be caught
+there by a lot of truculent Sikhs under one of those jocularly
+incredulous young British subalterns that Sikhs adore.  In the
+first place, I had nothing whatever in writing to prove my
+innocence.  The least that was likely to happen would be an
+ignominious return to Jerusalem, after a night in a guard-house,
+should there be a guard-house;  failing that, a night in the open
+within easy reach of Sikh's bayonets.  In Jerusalem, no doubt,
+Sir Louis would order me released immediately.  But it began to
+look as if the whole mystery after all was nothing but a well-
+staged decoy, using me for bait.  Not even tadpoles enjoy being
+used for live-bait without being consulted first.  I began to
+spear about for remedies.
+
+"If you're an honest man," I said, "you'd better simply deny all
+connection with the raid."
+
+"Hah?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.  He did not look like an honest man.
+He wasn't one.  He knew it.  He retorted gloomily:
+
+"Anazeh's scoundrels will have raided sheep, and perhaps cattle.
+If any one has resisted them, there will be wailing widows crying
+out for vengeance.  They will put the sheep and cattle in their
+boats in which they came over the sea this afternoon.  The boats
+will be found by the Sikhs, hauled up on the sand-pit just below
+my house, with my motor-boat beside them.  I am ruined!"
+
+Well, my own predicament was better than that.  Nobody was likely
+to accuse me of having stolen sheep.  But I could not feel sorry
+for my host, because he was so sorry for himself.  He was one of
+those unfortunates who carry the conviction of their own guilt in
+their faces.  I gave up all idea of relying on him in case the
+Sikhs should come.
+
+My next idea was to ask for the loan of one of the donkeys, and
+to start back toward Jerusalem.  But I had not more than thought
+of it when men's footsteps pattered on the yard dung, and an
+indubitable rifle-butt beat on the wooden door.
+
+"For God's sake!" hissed the owner of the place.  He ran to the
+door to open it as the thumping grew louder.  As he drew the bolt
+somebody kicked the door open, sending him reeling backwards.
+For a second I thought the Sikhs had come.
+
+But he was nothing like a Sikh who strode in, with a dozen
+ruffians at his tail and one-eyed Ali bringing up the rear.  He
+was one of the finest-looking Arabs I had ever seen, although
+considerably past fifty and wrinkled so that his face was a net-
+work of fine lines, out of which his big, dark eyes shone with
+unaged intelligence.  He was magnificently dressed, perhaps in
+order to do me honour.  Except for the fact that he carried a
+modern military rifle on his elbow, in place of a shepherd's
+crook or a spear, he looked like one of those historic worthies
+who stalk through the pages of the Pentateuch.  The dignity and
+charm with which he bowed to me were inimitable--unconveyable.
+But he turned on my Christian host like a prophet of old
+rebuking blasphemy.
+
+Arabic when the right man uses it sounds like tooth-for-a-tooth
+law being laid down.  Hebrew is all music and soft vowels;
+Arabic all guttural consonants.  The Sheikh Anazeh (there was no
+doubt of his identity;  they all kept calling him by name)
+fulminated.  The other bleated at him.  I learned his name at
+last.  Ali of the one eye pressed forward, took him by the
+sleeve, and called him Ahmed.  Ali seemed to be adding persuasion
+to Anazeh's threats.  Whatever it was they were driving at, Ahmed
+began to look like yielding.  So, as I could not untangle more
+than one brief sentence at a time from all those galloping
+arguments, I pulled Ahmed away into a corner.
+
+"What do they all want?" I asked him.  "Tell me in ten words."
+But he was not a brief man.
+
+"They say the Sikhs are after them.  They have put the stolen
+sheep into their boats, as I told you they would, mister.  Now
+they order me to tow them with my motor-boat.  But it cannot be
+done, mister, it cannot be done!  I tell them there is government
+launch near Jericho that the Sikh patrol can use to overtake us.
+I have a swift boat, but if I take in tow two other loaded boats
+we shall be caught;  and then who will save everything I have
+from confiscation?"
+
+"How close are the Sikhs?" I asked.
+
+"God knows, mister!  They can come fast.  Unless I consent to let
+them use my boat, Anazeh will order his men to kill me, and then
+they will take the boat in any case!  There is only one thing:
+they must leave the sheep behind and all crowd into my boat, but
+I cannot persuade them!"
+
+At that moment another of Anazeh's party burst in through the
+door.  He evidently bore bad news.  Catching sight of me, he
+lowered his voice to a whisper, and, whatever he said, Anazeh
+nodded gravely.  Then the old sheikh gave an order, and four of
+his men came without further ado to seize Ahmed.
+
+"Bear me witness!" the wretched man called back to me as they
+dragged him off.  "I go under protest--most unwillingly!"
+
+Somebody struck him with a butt-end.  A woman's head appeared
+over the top of the partition, and began to jabber noisily.
+Several of Anazeh's men hurled jests:  the highest compliment
+they paid her was to call her Um-Kulsum, the mother of sin.
+Anazeh beckoned to me.  He did not seem to doubt for an instant
+that I would follow him.
+
+I was in no mind to wait there and be arrested by the Sikh
+patrol.  I wondered whether they were coming in open order,
+combing the countryside, or heading all together straight for a
+known objective;  and whether in either case I could give them
+the slip and head back toward Jerusalem.  In that minute I
+recalled Grim's advice:
+
+"Do whatever the leader of the escort tells you and you'll be all
+right.  You needn't be afraid to trust him."
+
+That settled it.  I did not suppose for a minute that Grim had
+contemplated any such contingency as this;  but he had
+volunteered the advice, so the consequences would be his affair.
+I followed Anazeh into outer darkness, and one of his men pulled
+the door to after me.
+
+There was something very like a panic down by the waterside,
+three hundred yards away from the house.  It needed all Anazeh's
+authority to straighten matters out.  There were divided
+counsels;  and the raiders were working at a disadvantage in
+total darkness;  the shadow of the hills fell just beyond the
+stern of the boats as they lay with their bows ashore.
+
+They had already forced Ahmed into his own motor-boat, where he
+was struggling vainly to crank a cold engine.  Some of the others
+were trying to push off a boat full of bleating sheep.  One man
+was carrying a fat sheep in his arms toward the motor-boat,
+splashing knee-deep in the water and shouting advice to everybody
+else, and in the end that was the only piece of plunder they got
+away with.  Suddenly one man, who had been left behind to keep a
+look-out, came leaping like a ghost among the shadows, shouting
+the one word "askeri!" (Soldiers!)  He jumped straight into the
+motor-boat.  Anazeh bullied all the rest in after him.  I climbed
+in over the bow.  By that time you could not have crowded in one
+more passenger with the aid of a battering ram.
+
+"Yalla!" barked Anazeh.  But the engine would not start.  Blood-
+curdling threats were hurled at the unhappy Ahmed.  Some e of the
+men got into the water and began to shove off, as if the engine
+could be encouraged by collaboration.
+
+I was just as keen to escape as any one.  I could not imagine a
+Sikh or subaltern stupid enough to believe me innocent.  It was a
+military government.  Soldiers have a drum-head method of leaving
+nothing to discuss except where the corpse is to be buried.
+
+I forced my way aft--got some gasoline out of the tank into a tin
+cup--thrust aside Ahmed and two other men--and primed the engine
+liberally.  The engine coughed next time they moved the wheel,
+and in thirty seconds more we had it going.  Ahmed came in for a
+volley of mockery for having to be shown the way to start his
+engine;  but from the sour way he looked at me I was nearly sure
+he had stalled deliberately.
+
+We backed away from shore, and Anazeh steered the boat's nose
+eastward.  Then somebody at the reversing lever threw it forward
+too suddenly, and the still chilled engine stopped.  It took
+about another minute to restart it.  We were just beginning to
+gain speed when some one shouted.  All eyes turned toward the
+shore, the overloaded boat rocking dangerously as the crowd bent
+their bodies all in one direction together.
+
+Down near the shore-line an electric torch flashed on the
+uniforms of half-a-dozen Sikhs, and we could hear an unmistakably
+British voice shouting an order.
+
+We were out in the moonlight now, a perfect target.  Bullets
+chanced at us could hardly fail to hit somebody.  Two or three
+well-placed shots might sink us.  But Anazeh had presence of
+mind.  He changed helm, so as to present us end-on to the shore.
+Low in the water though the boat was, we were beginning to make
+good headway.
+
+The Sikhs lost no time.  Shots began to whizz overhead and to
+splash the water around us.  But the boat was painted gray;  as
+we increased the distance we must have looked like a moving patch
+of darker water with a puzzling wake behind us.  The sea was
+still.  The stars were reflected in it in unsteady dots and
+streaks.  The moon cast a silver patch of light that shimmered,
+and confused the eye.  Sikhs are not by any means all marksmen.
+At any rate, the shots all missed.  Though some of our party,
+Anazeh included, returned the fire, none boasted of having hit
+any one.  And an Arab boasts at the least excuse.
+
+In a few minutes we were out of range and, since there was no
+pursuing launch in sight, could afford to jeer at the Sikhs in
+chorus.  There were things said about their habits and their
+ancestry that it is to be hoped they did not hear, or at any rate
+understand, for the sake of any Arab prisoners they might take in
+future.  It always struck me as a fool game to mock your enemy.
+If you fall in his power at any time he would be almost more than
+human if he did not remember it.  It seemed to me unlikely that
+those Sikhs would forget to avenge the Arab compliments that must
+have sizzled in ears across that star-lit sea.  After that the
+only immediate danger was from the wind that sometimes blows down
+in sudden gusts from between the mountain-tops.  It would have
+needed only half a sea to swamp us.  But the Dead Sea was living
+up to its reputation, quiet, inert, like a mercury mirror for the
+stars--a brooding place of silence.
+
+The Arabs' spirits rose as we chugged toward their savage hills.
+They began to sing glorious songs about women and mares and
+camels.  Presently Anazeh improvised an epic about the night's
+raid, abortive though it had been.  He left out all the
+disappointing part.  He sang first of the three shore-dwelling
+fools whose boats they had stolen.  Then of the baffled rage of
+those same fools when they should learn their property was lost
+forever.  Presently, as he warmed to the spirit of the thing, he
+sang about the wails of the frightened villagers from whom they
+had plundered sheep and goats;  and of the skill and
+resourcefulness with which the party had escaped pursuit under
+his leadership, Allah favoring, "and blessed be His Prophet!"
+
+Last, he sang about me, the honoured stranger, for whom they had
+dared everything and conquered, and whom they were taking to El-
+Kerak.  He described me as a prince from a far country, the son
+of a hundred kings.
+
+It was a good song.  I got Ahmed to translate it to me
+afterwards.  But I suspect that Ahmed toned it down in deference
+to what he may have thought might be my modesty and moralistic
+scruples.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Four
+
+"I am willing to use all means--all methods."
+
+
+Ahmed knew the Dead Sea.  He knew its moods and a few of its
+tricks, so he was suitably scared.  He was more of raid of the
+treacherous sea than of his captors.  They weren't treacherous in
+the least.  They were frankly disobedient of any law except their
+own;  respectful of nothing but bullets, brains and their own
+interpretation of the Will of Allah.  They showed sublime
+indifference to danger that always comes of ignorance.  Ahmed was
+for running straight across to cut the voyage short, because of
+the wind that sometimes blows from the south at dawn.  He said it
+might kick up a sea that would roll us over, for the weight of
+the Dead Sea waves in a blow is prodigious.
+
+They overruled his protest with loud-lunged unanimity and lots of
+abuse.  Anazeh continued to steer a diagonal course for a notch
+in the Moab Hills that look, until you get quite close to them,
+as if they rose sheer out of the sea.  The old chief was pretty
+amateurish at the helm, whatever his other attainments.  Our wake
+was like a drunkard's.
+
+What with the danger in that overcrowded boat, and the manifestly
+compromising fact that I had now become one of a gang who boasted
+of the murder they had done that night, I did some speculation
+that seems ridiculous now, at this distance, after a lapse of
+time.  It occurred to me that Grim might be disguised as a member
+of Anazeh's party.  As far as possible in the dark I thoroughly
+scrutinized each individual.  It is easy to laugh about it now,
+but I actually made my way to Anazeh's side and tried to discover
+whether the old Sheikh's wrinkles and gray-shot beard were not a
+very skillfully done make-up.  At any rate, I got from that
+absurd investigation the sure knowledge that Grim was not in the
+boat with us.
+
+I could not talk with Anazeh very well, because when he tried to
+understand my amateurish Arabic and to modify his flow of stately
+speech to meet my needs, he always put his head down, and the
+helm with it.  It seemed wisest to let him do one unaccustomed
+thing at a time.  I did not care to try to talk with any of his
+men, because that might possibly have been a breach of etiquette.
+Arab jealousy is about as quick as fulminate of mercury:  as
+unreasonable, from a western viewpoint, as a love-sick woman's.
+
+But there did not seem any objection to talking with Ahmed.  He
+was at least in theory my co-religionist, and not a person any
+Moslem in that boat was likely to be jealous of.  He jumped
+at the notion of making friends with me.  He made no secret of
+the reason.
+
+"You are safe, effendi.  They will neither rob you, nor kill you,
+nor let you get killed.  You are their guest.  But as for me,
+they would cut my throat as readily as that sheep's, more
+especially since they have discovered that you know how to start
+the engine.  My best chance was to make them believe that the
+engine is difficult to understand.  Because of your knowledge
+they now feel independent of me.  So I must yield to them in
+everything.  And if they force me to swear on a Bible, and on my
+father's honour, and in the name of God, that I will not give
+evidence against them, I shall have to swear."
+
+"An oath given under compulsion--" I began.  But he laughed
+cynically.
+
+"Ah!  You do not know this land--these folk, effendi.  If I were
+to break such an oath as that, they would burn my house, steal my
+cattle, ravish my wife, and hunt me to the death.  If I ran away
+to America, Arabs in Chicago and New York would continue the
+hunt.  This is a land where an oath is binding, unless you are
+the stronger.  I am weak--an unimportant person."
+
+"What is your business?" I asked.
+
+"There is no business for a man like me.  The regulations forbid
+commerce in the only goods for which there is a real demand
+among Bedouins."
+
+"So you're a smuggler, eh?"
+
+He laughed, between pride and caution, and changed the subject.
+
+"I shall do what they order me, effendi.  I think they will keep
+my boat over there to bring you back again.  But when I get back
+the Sikhs will arrest me.  So I ask you to bear me witness that I
+was compelled by threats and force to go with these people.  In
+that way, with a little ingenuity--that is to say, the ingenious
+use of piastras--perhaps I can contrive to get out of the
+difficulty without being punished by both Arabs and British."
+
+I promised to tell no more than I had seen and heard.  On the
+strength of that we became as fast friends as suspicion
+permitted.  We trusted each other, because we more or less had
+to, like a couple of thieves "on the lam."  It suited me.  He was
+a very good interpreter and slavishly anxious to please.  But I
+lived to regret it later.  When my evidence had cleared him of
+collusion in the raid, he chose on the strength of that to claim
+me as his friend for life.  He turned up in the United States and
+tried to live on his wits.  I had to pay a lawyer to defend him
+in Federal Court.  He writes me piously pathetic letters from
+Leavenworth Penitentiary.  And when he gets out I suppose I
+shall have to befriend him again.  However, at the moment, he
+was useful.
+
+It was just dawn when old Anazeh ran the launch into a cove
+between high rocks.  Ahmed let out a shriek of anguish at the
+violence done the hull.  They pitched the sheep overboard to
+wade ashore without remembering to untie its legs;  it was
+almost drowned before it occurred to any one to rescue it.
+Perhaps it was dead.  I don't know.  Anyhow, one fellow prayed
+in a hurry while his companion cut the sheep's throat to make
+it lawful meat.
+
+"God is good," old Anazeh remarked to me, "and blessed be His
+Prophet, who forbade us faithful, even though we hunger, to
+defile ourselves with the flesh of creatures whose blood did not
+flow from the knife of the slayer."
+
+After that they all prayed, going first into the oily-feeling,
+asphaltic water for the ceremonial washing.  They were quite
+particular about it.  Then they spread prayer-mats, facing Mecca.
+Every single cut-throat had brought along his prayer-mat, and had
+treasured it as carefully as his rifle.
+
+Ahmed and I sat on a rock and watched them.  Ahmed pretended he
+wanted to pray, too.  To impress me, he said he was a very devout
+Christian and that nothing should prevent the practice of his
+religion.  But he was very quick to take my advice not to start
+anything that might bring on a breach of the peace.  Old Anazeh's
+short preliminary sermon to his followers, about the need of
+always keeping God in mind, was not addressed to us.
+
+Prayers finished, they proceeded to cut up and cook the sheep.
+Ahmed and I subdued the voice of conscience without noticeable
+effort and ate our share of the stolen goods.  Ahmed said that,
+seeing how little was left for him when the rest had all been
+served, he sinned only in small degree, but that my share, as an
+honoured guest, was huge, and the sin proportionate.  So I gave
+him some of my meat, and he ate it, and we were equally sinful--
+one more bond cementing an "eternal friendship!"
+
+We had hardly finished eating when an Arab on a gray horse came
+riding furiously down a ravine that looked like a dry water-
+course.  He was brought up all-standing fifty yards away.  Every
+man in the party leveled a rifle at him.  Anazeh beckoned me to
+come and get behind him for protection.  He was very angry when I
+refused.  He cursed the language and religion of whatever fool
+had taught me manners in a land where pigs are lawful food.
+However, after they had all had a good look at the horseman they
+let him draw near, and there followed a noisy conference, the man
+on the horse calling on Allah repeatedly with emphasis, and
+Anazeh and his followers all doing the same thing, but from an
+opposing viewpoint.  I persuaded Ahmed to go up close and listen.
+
+"The man is from El-Kerak," he said presently, while they all
+still fought with words, using tremendous oaths by way of
+artillery.  "A council of the tribes has been summoned, to meet
+at El-Kerak, but each sheikh is only to take two men with him,
+because of the risk of fighting among themselves.  Anazeh says
+there can be no proper council without his being present, and
+that he will attend the council;  but as for taking only two men,
+he has pledged his word to escort you with twenty men to El-
+Kerak.  He swears that he will carry out that pledge, even should
+he have to fight the whole way there and back again!"
+
+Anazeh suddenly cut short the war of words.  His gesture
+suggested that of Joshua who made the sun stand still.  He tossed
+a curt order to one of his men, who went off at a run toward a
+village, whose morning smoke rose blue over a spur of the range a
+mile away.  Then Anazeh sat down to await events, and took no
+more notice of the horseman's arguments.  That did not worry the
+horseman much.  He kept on arguing.  Every few minutes one of
+Anazeh's men would go to him and repeat some tid-bit, as if the
+old sheikh had not heard it;  but all he got for his pains was a
+gesture of contemptuous dismissal.
+
+Ahmed kept growing more and more uncomfortable all the time.  He
+had attended to his boat, making it properly fast and covering
+the engine, under the eyes of four men who were at pains to see
+that he did not crank up and desert.  Now he was back beside me,
+trying to bolster up his own courage by making me afraid.
+
+"They have determined to take me along with them to prevent me
+from escaping," he complained.  "That man on the horse is saying
+that if more men go with Anazeh than you and two others, there
+will certainly be fighting.  And Anazeh answers, he has pledged
+his word.  Can you not say something to persuade Anazeh?"
+
+I would rather have tried to persuade a tiger.  Short of knocking
+the old raider on the head and standing off his twenty ruffians,
+I could not imagine a way of turning him from his set purpose.
+And at that, I had not a weapon of any kind.  I was the goods,
+and the game old sportsman intended to deliver me, right side up,
+perhaps, but all in one piece and to the proper consignee.
+
+
+"I don't see anything to worry about," said I.
+
+"Wait till you hear the bullets!" Ahmed answered.  Nevertheless,
+bullets or no bullets, I did not see what I could do about it.
+Again I remembered Grim's advice:  "Do what the leader of the
+escort tells you."  I had begun to feel sorry for Ahmed in spite
+of his self-pity, but his fear wasn't contagious and his advice
+wasn't worth listening to.
+
+"Effendi, you are Anazeh's guest.  He must do as you demand, if
+you ask in the Name of the Most High.  Tell him, therefore, that
+you have an urgent business in El-Kudz.  Demand that he send you
+back, with me, in my boat!"
+
+"You are not his guest.  He would simply shoot you and destroy
+the boat," I answered.
+
+It was not more than half-an-hour before I saw horses coming in
+our direction from the village.  At sight of them the man on the
+gray horse lost heart.  With a final burst of eloquence, in which
+he spread his breast to heaven and shook both fists in witness
+that he was absolved and no blood-guilt could rest on his head,
+he rode away at top speed straight up the ravine down which he
+originally came.
+
+The horses proved to be a very mixed lot--some good, some very
+bad, and some indifferent.  But again they treated me as honoured
+guest and provided me a mare with four sound legs and nothing
+much the matter except vice.  She came at me with open teeth
+when I tried to mount, but four men held her and I climbed
+aboard, somehow or other.  As a horseman, I am a pretty good
+sack of potatoes.
+
+That was the worst saddle I ever sat in--and Anazeh's second-
+best!  The stirrups swung amidships, so to speak, and whenever
+you tried to rest your weight on them for a moment they described
+an arc toward the rear.  Moreover, you could not sit well back on
+the saddle to balance matters, because of the high cantle.  The
+result, whether you did with stirrups or without them, was
+torture, for anybody but an Arab, who has notions of comfort all
+his own.
+
+They put Ahmed on a wall-eyed scrub that looked unfit to walk,
+but proved well able to gallop under his light weight.  One of
+Anazeh's men took my bag, with a nod to reassure me, and without
+a word we were off full-pelt, Anazeh leading with four stalwarts
+who looked almost as hard-bitten as himself, six men crowding me
+closely, and the remainder bringing up the rear.
+
+That is the Arab way of doing things--rush and riot to begin
+with.  The steepness of the stony ravine we rode up soon reduced
+the horses to a walk, after which there was a good deal of
+attention to rifle-bolts, and a settling down to the more serious
+aspects of the adventure.  The escort began to look sullenly
+ferocious, as only Arabs can.
+
+There was a time, during the Turkish regime before the War, when
+Cook's Agency took tourists in parties to El-Kerak, and all the
+protection necessary was a handful of Turkish soldiers, whose
+thief employment on the trip was to gather fuel and pitch tents.
+Some one paid the Arabs to let tourists alone, and they normally
+did.  But the War changed all that.  A post-Armistice stranger in
+1920, with leather boots, was fair quarry for whoever had rifle
+or knife.
+
+We passed by a village or two, tucked into folds in the hills and
+polluting the blue sky with a smell of ageing dung, but nothing
+seemed disposed to happen.  A few men stood behind stone walls
+and stared at us sullenly.  The women looked up from their
+grindstones at the doors, covered their faces for convention's
+sake, and uncovered them again at once for curiosity.  There was
+nothing you could call a road between the villages, only a rocky
+cattle-track that seemed to take the longest possible way between
+two points;  and nobody seemed to own it, or to be there to
+challenge our right of way.
+
+But suddenly, after we had passed the third village and were
+walking the horses up a shoulder of a steep hill-top, three shots
+cracked out from in front of us to left and right.  Nobody fell,
+but if ever there was instantaneous response it happened then.
+Anazeh and his four galloped forward up-hill, firing as they rode
+for the cover of a breast-high ridge.  One man on the off-side
+tipped me out of the saddle, so suddenly that I had no chance to
+prevent him;  another caught me, and two others flung me into a
+hole behind a stone.  I heard the rear-guard scatter and run.
+Two men pitched Ahmed down on top of me, for he was valuable,
+seeing he could run an engine;  and thirty seconds later I peered
+out around the rock to get a glimpse of what was happening.
+
+There was not a man in sight.  I could see some of the horses
+standing under cover.  The firing was so rapid that it sounded
+almost like machine-gun practice.  A hairy arm reached out and
+pushed my head back, and after that, whenever I made the least
+movement, a man who was sniping from behind the sheltering rock
+swore furiously, and threatened to brain me with his butt-end.
+Beyond all doubt they regarded me as perishable freight;  so I
+hardly saw any of the fighting.
+
+Judging by the sound, I should say they fought their way up-hill
+in skirmish order, and when they got to the top the enemy--
+whoever they were--took to flight.  But that is guesswork.  There
+were two casualties on our side.  One man shot through the arm,
+which did not matter much;  he was well able to lie about what
+had happened and to boast of how many men he had slain before the
+bullet hit him.  The other was wounded pretty seriously in the
+jaw.  They came to me for first aid, taking it for granted that I
+knew something about surgery.  I don't.  I had a bad time
+bandaging both of them, using two of my handkerchiefs and strips
+from the protesting Ahmed's shirt.  However, I enjoyed it more
+than they did.
+
+When Anazeh shouted at last and we all rode to the hilltop there
+was a dead man lying there, stripped naked, with his throat cut
+across from ear to ear.  One of our men was wiping a long knife
+by stabbing it into the dirt.  There was also a led horse added
+to the escort.  Anazeh looked very cool and dignified;  he had an
+extra rifle now, slung by a strap across his shoulders.  He was
+examining a bandolier that had blood on it.
+
+We rode on at once, and for the next hour Ahmed was kept busy
+interpreting to me the lies invented by every member of the
+escort for my especial benefit.  If they were true, each man had
+slain his dozen;  but nobody would say who the opposing faction
+were.  When I put that question they all dried up and nobody
+would speak again for several minutes.
+
+It turned out afterward that there had been a sort of armistice
+proclaimed, and all the local chiefs had undertaken to observe it
+and cease from blood-feuds for three days, provided that each
+chief should prove peaceful intention by bringing with him only
+two men.  Three men in a party, and not more than three, had
+right of way.  The engagement may have been a simple protest
+against breach of the terms of the armistice, but I suspect there
+was more than that in it.
+
+At any rate, we were not attacked again on the road, although there
+were men who showed themselves now and then on inaccessible-looking
+crags, who eyed us suspiciously and made no answer to the shouted
+challenge of Anazeh's men.  When the track passed over a spur, or
+swung round the shoulder of a cliff, we could sometimes catch
+sight of other parties--always, though of three, before and behind
+us, proceeding in the same direction.
+
+We sighted the stone walls of El-Kerak at about midafternoon, and
+rode up to the place through a savage gorge that must have been
+impregnable in the old days of bows and arrows.  It would take a
+determined army today to force itself through the wadys and
+winding water-courses that guard that old citadel of Romans
+and crusaders.
+
+We approached from the Northwest corner, where a tower stands
+that they call Burj-ez-Zahir.  There were lions carved on it.  It
+looked as if the battlements had been magnificent at one time;
+but whatever the Turks become possessed of always falls into
+decay, and the Arabs seem no better.
+
+Beside the Burj-ez-Zahir is a tunnel, faced by an unquestionable
+Roman arch.  Outside it there were more than a dozen armed men
+lounging, and a lot of others looked down at us through the
+ruined loop-holes of the wall above.  Their leader challenged
+our numbers at once, and refused admission.  Judging by Anazeh's
+magnificently insolent reply it looked at first as if he
+intended fighting his way in.  But that turned out to be
+only his diplomatic manner--establishing himself, as it were,
+on an eminence from which he could make concessions without
+losing dignity.
+
+The arrangement finally agreed to was Anazeh's suggestion, but
+showed diplomatic genius on both sides.  The old man divided up
+his party into sets of three, and asserted that every set of
+three was independent.  There were twenty-two of us all told,
+including Ahmed, but he described Ahmed as a prisoner, and
+offered to have him shot if that would simplify matters.
+
+There was a great deal of windy discussion about Ahmed's fate,
+during which his face grew the color of raw liver and he joined
+in several times tearfully.  Once he was actually seized and
+half-a-dozen of the castle guards aimed at him;  but they
+compromised finally by letting him go in with hands tied.  Nobody
+really wanted the responsibility of shooting a man who had
+smuggled stolen cartridges across the Dead Sea, and might do it
+again if allowed to live.
+
+We rode for eighty or a hundred paces through an echoing tunnel
+into a city of shacks and ruined houses that swarmed with armed
+men, and it was evident that we were not the only ones who had
+ignored the rule about numbers.  Anazeh explained in an aside
+to me that only those would obey that rule who did not dare
+break it.
+
+"Whoever makes laws should be strong enough to enforce them," he
+said sagely.  "And whoever obeys such a law is at the mercy of
+those who break it," he added presently, by way of afterthought.
+To make sure that I understood him he repeated that remark
+three times.
+
+Every house had its quota of visitors, who lounged in the
+doorways and eyed us with mixed insolence and curiosity.  There
+were coffee-booths all over the place that seemed to have been
+erected for the occasion, where, under awnings made of stick and
+straw, men sat with rifles on their knees.  Those who had
+provender to sell for horses were doing a roaring trade--short
+measure and high price;  and the noise of grinding was incessant.
+The women in the back streets were toiling to produce enough to
+eat for all that host of notables.
+
+To have had to hunt for quarters in that town just then would
+have been no joke.  There was the mosque, of course, where any
+Moslem who finds himself stranded may theoretically go and sleep
+on a mat on the floor.  But we rode past the mosque.  It was
+full.  I would not have liked a contract to crowd one more in
+there.  Perhaps a New York Subway guard could have managed it.
+The babel coming through the open door was like the buzzing of
+flies on a garbage heap.
+
+I was trying to sit upright in that abominable saddle and look
+dignified, as became the honoured guest with a twenty-man escort,
+when a courteous-looking cut-throat wearing an amber necklace
+worth a wheat-field, forced his way through a crowd and greeted
+Anazeh like a long lost brother.  I examined him narrowly to make
+sure he was not Grim in disguise, but he had two fingers missing,
+and holes in his ears, which decided that question.
+
+After he had welcomed me effusively he led us through a rat-run
+maze of streets to a good-sized house with snub-nosed lions
+carved on the stone doorposts and a lot of other marks of both
+Roman and crusader.  No part of the walls was less than three
+feet thick, although the upper story had been rebuilt rather
+recently on a more economical and much less dignified scale.
+Nevertheless, there was a sort of semi-European air about the
+place, helped out by two casemented projections overhanging the
+narrow street.
+
+There was no need to announce ourselves.  The clatter of hoofs
+and shouts to ordinary folk on foot to get out of the way had
+done that already.  Sheikh ben Nazir opened the door in person.
+His welcome to me was the sort that comes to mind when you read
+the Bible story of the prodigal son returning from a far-off
+country.  I might have been his blood-relation.  But perhaps I am
+wrong about that;  bloodfeuds among blood-relations are
+notoriously savage.  He was the host, and I the guest.  Among
+genuine Arabs that is the most binding relation there is.
+
+He was no longer in blue serge and patent-leather boots, but
+magnificent in Arab finery, and he was tricked out in a  puzzling
+snowy-white head-dress that suggested politics without your
+knowing why.  He had told me, when I met him at the American
+Colony, that he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca more than once;
+but that white linen thing had nothing to do with his being a
+haji, any more than the expensive rings on the fingers of both
+hands had anything to do with his Arab nationality.
+
+After he had flattered and questioned me sufficiently about the
+journey to comply with etiquette I asked him whether Ahmed might
+not be untied.  The thong cutting the man's wrists. Sheikh hen
+Nazir gave the necessary order and it was obeyed at once.  The
+liquid-eyed rascal with the priceless amber necklace then led
+away the escort, Ahmed included, to some place where they could
+stall the horses, and--side-by-side, lest any question of
+precedence should be involved, Anazeh and I followed ben Nazir
+into the house.
+
+We were not the only guests there.  He ushered us into a square
+room, in which outrageous imported furniture, with gilt and
+tassels on it, stood out like loathsome sores against rugs and
+cushions fit for the great Haroun-al-Raschid's throne room.  Any
+good museum in the world would have competed to possess the rugs,
+but the furniture was the sort that France sends eastward in the
+name of "culture"--stuff for "savages" to sit on and be civilized
+while the white man bears the burden and collects the money.
+
+There were half-a-dozen Arabs reclining on two bastard Louis-
+something-or-other settees, who rose to their feet as we entered.
+There was another man, sitting on a cushion in a corner by
+himself, who did not get up.  He wore a white head-dress exactly
+like our host's, and seemed to consider himself somebody very
+important indeed.  After one swift searching glance at us he went
+into a brown study, as if a mere sheikh and a Christian alien
+were beneath his notice.
+
+We were introduced first of all to the men who had stood up to
+greet us, and that ceremony took about five minutes.  The Arab
+believes he ought to know all about how you feel physically, and
+expects you to reciprocate.  When that was over ben Nazir took us
+to the corner and presented, first me, then Anazeh to the
+solitary man in the white head-dress, who seemed to think himself
+too important to trouble about manners.
+
+Anazeh did not quite like my receiving attention first, and he
+liked still less the off-handed way in which the solitary man
+received us.  We were told his name was Suliman ben Saoud.  He
+acknowledged my greeting.  He and old Anazeh glared at each
+other, barely moving their heads in what might have been an
+unspoken threat and retort or a nod of natural recognition.
+Anazeh turned on his heel and joined the other guests.
+
+In some vague way I knew that Saoud was a name to conjure
+with, although memory refused to place it.  The man's air of
+indifference and apparently unstudied insolence suggested he was
+some one well used to authority.  Presuming on the one thing that
+I felt quite sure of by that time--my privileged position as a
+guest--I stayed, to try to draw him out.  I tried to open up
+conversation with him with English, French, and finally lame
+Arabic.  He took no apparent notice of the French and English,
+but he smiled sarcastically at my efforts with his own tongue.
+Except that he moved his lips he made no answer but went on
+clicking the beads of a splendid amber rosary.
+
+Ben Nazir, seeming to think that Anazeh's ruffled feelings called
+for smoothing, crossed the room to engage him in conversation, so
+I was left practically alone with the strange individual.  More
+or less in a spirit of defiance of his claim to such distinction,
+I sat down on a cushion beside him.
+
+He was a peculiar-looking man.  The lower part of his cheek--that
+side on which I sat--was sunk in, as if he had no teeth there.
+The effect was to give his whole face a twisted appearance.  The
+greater part of his head, of course, was concealed by the flowing
+white kaffiyi, but his skin was considerably darker than that of
+the   Palestine Arab.  He had no eyebrows at all, having shaved
+them off--for a vow I supposed.  Instead of making him look
+comical, as you might expect, it gave him a very sinister
+appearance, which was increased by his generally surly attitude.
+
+Once again, as when I had entered the room, he turned his head to
+give me one swift, minutely searching glance, and then turned his
+eyes away as if he had no further interest.  They were quite
+extraordinary eyes, brimful of alert intelligence;  and whereas
+from his general appearance I should have set him down at
+somewhere between forty and fifty, his eyes suggested youth, or
+else that keen, unpeaceful spirit that never ages.
+
+I tried him again in Arabic, but he answered without looking at
+me, in a dialect I had never heard before.  So I offered him a
+gold-tipped cigarette, that being a universal language.  He
+waived the offer aside with something between astonishment and
+disdain.  He had lean, long-fingered hands, entirely unlike
+those of the desert fraternity, who live too hard and fight
+too frequently to have soft, uncalloused skin and unbroken
+finger-nails.
+
+He did not exactly fascinate me.  His self-containment was
+annoying.  It seemed intended to convey an intellectual and moral
+importance that I was not disposed to concede without knowing
+more about him.  I suppose an Arab feels the same sensation when
+a Westerner lords it over him on highly moral grounds.  At any
+rate, something or other in the way of pique urged me to stir him
+out of his self-complacency, just as one feels urged to prod a
+bull-frog to watch him jump.
+
+He seemed to understand my remarks, for he took no trouble to
+hide his amusement at my efforts with the language.  But he
+only answered in monosyllables, and I could not understand
+those.  So after about five minutes I gave it up, and crossed
+the room to ben Nazir, who seized the opportunity to show me
+my sleeping-quarters.
+
+It proved to be a room like a monastery cell, up one flight of
+stone steps, with two other rooms of about the same size on
+either side of it.  At the end of the passage was a very heavy
+wooden door, with an iron lock and an enormous keyhole, which I
+suppose shut off the harem from the rest of the house;  but as I
+never trespassed beyond it I don't know.  I only do know that a
+woman's eye was watching me through that key-hole, and ben Nazir
+frowned impatiently at the sound of female giggling.
+
+"The Sheikh Anazeh will have the room on this side of you," he
+said, "and the Sheikh Suliman ben Saoud the room on the other.
+So you will be between friends."
+
+"Suliman ben Saoud seems a difficult person to make friends
+with," I answered.
+
+Ben Nazir smiled like a prince out of a picture-book--beautiful
+white teeth and exquisite benignance.
+
+"Oh, you mustn't mind him.  These celebrities from the centre of
+Arabia give themselves great airs.  To do that is considered
+evidence of piety and wisdom."
+
+I sat on the bed--quite a civilized affair, spotlessly clean.
+Ben Nazir took the chair, I suppose, like the considerate host he
+was, to give me the sensation of receiving in my own room.
+
+"He wears the same sort of head-dress you do.  What does it
+mean?" I asked.
+
+"I wear mine out of compliment to him--not that I have not
+always the right to wear it.  It is the Ichwan head-dress.
+It is highly significant."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+He hesitated for a moment, and then seemed to make up his mind
+that it did not much matter what he might divulge to an ignorant
+stranger soon to return to the United States.
+
+"It is difficult to explain.  You Americans know so little of our
+politics.  It is significant, I might say, of the New Arabia--
+Arabia for the Arabs.  The great ben Saoud, who is a relative of
+this man, is an Arabian chieftain who has welded most of Arabia
+into one, and now challenges King Hussein of Mecca for the
+caliphate.  Hussein is only kept on his throne by British gold,
+paid to him from India.  Ben Saoud also receives a subsidy from
+the British, who must continue to pay it, because otherwise ben
+Saoud will attack Hussein and overwhelm him.  That, it is
+believed, would mean a rising of all the Moslem world against
+their rulers--in Africa--Asia--India--Java--everywhere.  It began
+as a religious movement.  It is now political--although it is
+held together by religious zeal.  You might say that the Ichwans
+are the modern Protestants of Islam.  They are fanatical.  The
+world has never seen such fanaticism, and the movement spreads
+day by day."
+
+"You don't look like a fanatic," I said, and he laughed again.
+
+"I?  God forbid!  But I am a politician;  and to succeed a
+politician must have friends among all parties.  My one ambition
+is to see all Arabs united in an independent state reaching from
+this coast to the Persian Gulf.  To that end I devote my energy.
+I use all means available--including money paid me by the French,
+who have no intention of permitting any such development if they
+can help it."
+
+"And the British?"
+
+"For the present we must make use of them also.  But their yoke
+must go, eventually."
+
+"Then if America had accepted the Near East mandate, you would
+have used us in the same way?"
+
+"Certainly.  That would have been the easiest way, because
+America understands little or nothing of our politics.  America's
+money--America's schools and hospitals--America's war munitions--
+and then good-bye.  I am willing to use all means--all methods to
+the one end--Arabia for the Arabs.  After that I am willing to
+retire into oblivion."
+
+Nevertheless, ben Nazir did not convince me that he was an
+altruist who had no private ends to serve.  There was an
+avaricious gleam in ben Nazir's eyes.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Five
+
+"D'you mind if I use You?"
+
+For all his care to seem hospitable before any other
+consideration, ben Nazir looked ill at ease.  He led me down
+again to a dining-room hung with spears, shields, scimitars and
+ancient pistols, but furnished otherwise like an instalment-plan
+apartment.  He watched while a man set food before me.  It seemed
+that Anazeh had gone away somewhere to eat with his men.
+
+Ben Nazir's restlessness became so obvious that I asked at last
+whether I was not detaining him.  He jumped at the opening.  With
+profound apologies he asked me to excuse him for the remainder of
+the afternoon.
+
+"You see," he explained, "I came from Damascus to Jerusalem, so I
+was rather out of touch with what was going on here.  This
+conference of notables was rather a surprise to me.  It will not
+really take place until tomorrow, but there are important details
+to attend to in advance.  If you could amuse yourself--"
+
+The man who could not do that in a crusader city, crammed with
+sons of Ishmael who looked as if they had stepped out of the
+pages of the Old Testament, would be difficult to please.  I
+asked for Ahmed, to act as interpreter.  Ben Nazir volunteered to
+provide me with two men in addition as a sort of bodyguard.
+
+"Because Ahmed is a person who is not respected."
+
+It did not take ten minutes to produce Ahmed and the two men.
+The latter were six-foot, solemn veterans armed with rifles
+and long knives.  With them at my heels I set out to explore
+El-Kerak.
+
+"There is nothing to see," said Ahmed, who did not want to come.
+But Ahmed was a liar.  There was everything to see.  The only
+definite purpose I had in mind was to find Grim.  It was possible
+I might recognize him even through his disguise.  Failing that,
+he could not help but notice me if I walked about enough;  if so,
+he would find his own means of establishing communication.
+
+But you might as well have hunted for one particular pebble on a
+beach as for a single individual in all that throng.  Remembering
+Grim's disguise when I first saw him, I naturally had that
+picture of him in mind.  But all the Bedouins looked about as
+much alike as peas in a pod.  They stared at me as if I were a
+curio on exhibition, but they did not like being stared back at.
+
+There was no hint of violence or interference, and no apparent
+resentment of an alien's presence in their midst.  The loud-
+lunged bodyguard shouted out to all and sundry to make way for
+the "Amerikani," and way was made forthwith, although several
+times the bodyguard was stopped and questioned after I had
+passed, to make sure I was really American and not English.
+Ahmed assured me that if I had been English they would have
+"massacred" me.  In view of what transpired he may have been
+right, though I doubt it.  They might have held me as hostage.
+
+Not that they were in any kind of over-tolerant mood.  There was
+a man's dead body hanging by one foot from a great hook on a high
+wall, and the wall was splattered with blood and chipped by
+bullets.  I asked Ahmed what kind of criminal he might be.
+
+"He did not agree with them.  They are for war.  He was in favor
+of peace, and he made a speech two hours ago.  So they accused
+him of being a traitor, and he was tried and condemned."
+
+"Who tried him?"
+
+"Everybody did."
+
+"War with whom?" I asked.
+
+"The British."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because they favor the Zionists."
+
+"And that is what the conference is all about?"
+
+"Yes.  There is a man here from Damascus, who urges them to raid
+across the Jordan into Palestine.  He says that the Palestinian
+Arabs will rise then, and cut the throats of all the  Zionists.
+He says that Emir Feisul is going to attack the French in Syria,
+and that the British will have to go and help the French, so now
+is the time for a raid."
+
+"Is my host, ben Nazir, the man who is talking that way?  He has
+been to Damascus."
+
+"No.  Another, named Abdul Ali--a very rich sheikh, who comes
+here often with caravans of merchandise, and gives rich presents
+to notables."
+
+"Has ben Nazir anything to do with it?"
+
+"Who knows?  Mashallah!  The world is full of mysteries.  That
+Nazir is a knowing one.  They say of him:  whichever option is
+uppermost, that is always his opinion.  He is a safe man to
+follow for that reason.  Yet it is easier to follow water through
+a channel underground."
+
+We made our way toward the castle at the south side of the town,
+but were prevented from entering by a guard of feudal retainers,
+who looked as if they had been well drilled.  They were as solemn
+as the vultures that sat perched along the rampart overlooking a
+great artificial moat dividing the town from the high hill just
+beyond it.
+
+Nobody interfered when I climbed on the broken town wall and
+looked over.  The castle wall sloped down steeply into the moat,
+suggesting ample space within for dungeons and underground
+passages;  but there was nothing else there of much interest to
+see, only dead donkeys, a dying camel with the vultures already
+beginning on him, some dead dogs, heaps of refuse, and a lot more
+vultures too gorged to fly--the usual Arab scheme of sanitation.
+I asked one of my bodyguard to shoot the camel and he obliged me,
+with the air of a keeper making concessions to a lunatic.  Nobody
+took any notice of the rifle going off.
+
+It was when we turned back into the town again that the first
+inkling of Grim's presence in the place turned up.  A bulky-
+looking Arab in a sheepskin coat that stank of sweat so vilely
+that you could hardly bear the man near you, came up and stood in
+my way.  Barring the smell, he was a winning-looking rascal--
+truculent, swaggering, but possessed of a good-natured smile that
+seemed to say:  "Sure, I'm a rogue and a liar, but what else did
+you expect!"
+
+He spoke perfectly good English.  He said he wished to speak to
+me alone.  That was easy enough;  Ahmed and the bodyguard
+withdrew about ten paces, and he and I stepped into a doorway.
+
+"I am Mahommed ben Hamza," he said, with his head on one side, as
+if that explanation ought to make everything clear to me at once.
+"From Hebron," he added, when I did not seem to see the light.
+
+The wiser one looks, and the less one says, in Arab lands, the
+less trouble there's likely to be.  I tried to look extremely
+wise, and said nothing.
+
+"Where is Jimgrim?" he demanded.
+
+"If you can tell me that I'll give you ten piastres," I answered.
+
+"I will give you fifty if you tell me!"
+
+"Why do you want to know?"
+
+"He is my friend.  He said I should see him here.  But I have not
+seen him.  He said also I should see you.  You are the Amerikani?
+And you don't know where he is?  Truly?  Then, when you see him,
+will you say to him, 'Mahommed ben Hamza is here with nine men at
+the house of Abu Shamah?'  Jimgrim will understand."
+
+I nodded, and the man from Hebron walked away without another word.
+
+"Did he steal your watch?" asked Ahmed.  They are as jealous as
+children, those Arabs.
+
+There was a second execution while I walked back through the
+city.  A wide-eyed, panic-stricken poor devil with slobber on his
+jaws came tearing down-street with a mob at his heels.  We
+stepped into an alley to let the race go by, but he doubled down
+the alley opposite.  Before he had run twenty yards along it some
+one hit the back of his head with a piece of rock.  A second
+later they had pounced on him, and in less than a minute after
+that he was kicking in the noose of a hide rope slung over a
+house-beam.  I don't know what they hanged him for.  No one
+apparently knew.  But they used his carcase for a target and shot
+it almost to pieces.
+
+I kept on looking for Grim, although the task seemed hopeless.
+Of course, I could not give a hint of my real purpose.  But as
+Grim knew that the talk about a school-teacher was my passport
+to the place, it seemed possible that he might use that as an
+excuse for getting in touch with me.  So I told Ahmed to show
+me the schools.
+
+They weren't worth looking at--mere tumble-down sheds in which
+Moslem boys were taught to say the Koran by heart.  The places
+where Christian missionaries once had been were all turned into
+stores, and even into stables for the horses of the notables.
+
+So I returned to ben Nazir's house, and found old Sheikh Anazeh
+sitting outside on the step, as motionless as a tobacco-store
+Indian but twice as picturesque.  He still had his own rifle over
+his knees, and the plundered one slung over his shoulder by a
+strap;  he never stirred abroad unarmed.
+
+I asked him what the conference of notables was going to be
+about, and he told me to mind my own business.  That struck me as
+an excellent idea, so, not having slept at all the previous
+night, I went upstairs and lay on the bed.  There was no lock on
+the door, so I set the chair against it.
+
+Ben Nazir was a man who had traveled a great deal, and picked up
+western notions of hospitality to add to the inborn eastern sense
+of sacredness in the relation between host and guest.  It seems
+that an hour or two later he came to take me down to a Gargantuan
+meal, but, feeling the chair against the door, and hearing
+snores, he decided it was better manners to let me lie in peace.
+
+So I did not wake up again until after midnight.  The moonlight
+was streaming through a little high-perched window, and fell on
+the white-robed, ghostly-looking figure of a man, who sat with
+crossed legs on the end of the bed.  I thought I was dead and
+in hell.
+
+That is no picturesque exaggeration about a man's hair standing
+when he is terrified.  It really does.  I would have yelled
+aloud, if the breath would have come, but there is a trick of
+sudden fear that seems to grip your lungs and hold them impotent.
+The thing on the end of the bed had no eye-brows.  It grinned as
+if it knew all about evil, and were hungry, and living men were
+its food.
+
+I don't know how long I stared at the thing, but it seemed
+like a week.  At last it spoke, and I burst into a sweat with
+the reaction.
+
+"Good job you don't know how to fasten a door with a chair.  I'll
+have to show you that trick, or you'll be dying before your time.
+Sh-h-h!  Don't make a noise!"
+
+I sat up and looked more closely at him.  It was the Ichwan of
+the afternoon--Sheikh Suliman ben Saoud.  And he was speaking
+unmistakable American.  I began again to believe I was dreaming.
+He chuckled quietly and lit a cigarette.
+
+"Aren't you wise to me yet?"
+
+"Grim?"
+
+"Who else?"
+
+"But what's happened to your face?  You're all one-sided."
+
+"Oh, that's easy.  I just take out my false teeth.  The rest is
+done with a razor and some brown stain.  I thought you were going
+to spot me when you first came.  Did you?  I didn't think so.
+Did you act as well as all that?"
+
+"No.  Looked all over town for you afterward."
+
+"Uh-huh.  I thought that was too natural to be acting.  Pick up
+any news in town?"
+
+"Saw a hanging, and met a man who calls himself Mahommed ben
+Hamza.  He's waiting at the house of Abu Shamah."
+
+"Any men with him?"
+
+"Nine."
+
+"Three more than he promised.  Ben Hamza is the most honest thief
+and dependable liar in Palestine--a cheerful murderer who sticks
+closer than a brother.  I saved him once from being hung, because
+he smiles so nicely.  Any more news?"
+
+"I expect none that you don't know.  There's a sheikh named Abdul
+Ali from Damascus, preaching a raid into Palestine."
+
+Grim nodded.
+
+"I'm here to bag that bird."
+
+"Where do I come in?" I asked.
+
+"You are the plausible excuse, that's all.  Thanks to you old
+Anazeh got into El-Kerak with twenty men.  Two might not have
+been enough, even with ben Hamza and his nine."
+
+"Then our host ben Nazir is in on your game?"
+
+"Not he!  Up at headquarters in Jerusalem we knew all about this
+coming conference.  These folk are ready to explode.  The only
+way to stop it is to pull the plug--The plug is Abdul Ali.  We
+knew we could count on old Anazeh.  But the puzzle was how to get
+him and his men into El-Kerak.  When you told me ben Nazir had
+invited you, I saw the way to do it.  There wasn't anybody else
+except Anazeh that ben Nazir could have sent to fetch you, and
+the old boy is a dependable friend of ours."
+
+"That did not stop him from raiding two villages on the British
+side of the Dead Sea," I answered.
+
+"Did he?"
+
+"Sure.  I had part of a raided sheep for breakfast."
+
+"Um-m-m!  Well of all the--damn his impudence!  The shrewd old
+devil must have figured that we can't get after him for it,
+seeing how he's playing our game.  Bloody old horse-thief!  Well,
+he gets away with it, this time.  You'll have to be mighty
+careful not to seem to recognize me.  One slip and we're done
+for.  You're safe enough.  If they once get wise to me they'll
+pull me in pieces between four horses."
+
+"What's your plan?"
+
+"It's vague yet.  Got to be an opportunist.  I'm supposed to
+be a member of the ben Saoud family, recruiting members for
+the new sect--biggest thing in Arabia.  I'm invited to the
+conference on the strength of my supposed connection with the
+big Ichwan movement."
+
+"D'you propose to murder this Abdul Ali person, then, or have him
+murdered?" I asked.
+
+"Uh-uh!  Murder's out of my line.  Besides, that'ud do no good.
+Worse than useless.  They'd all cut loose.  Abdul Ali has got
+them together.  What with bribes and a lot of promises he has
+them keen on this raid.  If he were killed they'd say one of our
+spies did it.  They'd add vengeance to their other motives, which
+at present are mainly a desire for loot.  No, no.  Abdul Ali has
+got to disappear.  Then they'll believe he has betrayed them.
+Then, instead of raiding Palestine they'll confiscate his
+property and curse his ancestors.  D'you see the point?"
+
+"More or less.  But what good can I do?"
+
+"Do you mind if I use you?"
+
+I laughed.  "That's a hell of a silly question.  Any use my
+minding?  You've already used me.  You will do it again without
+consulting me.  I like it, as it happens.  But a fat lot you
+care whether I like it or not.  Isn't it a bit late in the day
+to ask permission?"
+
+"Oh, well.  You know the hangmen always used to beg the victim's
+pardon.  Will you obey orders?"
+
+"Yes.  But it might be easier if I know what I'm doing."
+
+"As soon as I know I'll explain," he answered.  "Where you can
+fit into the puzzle at the moment is by rooting for the school
+idea.  The worst robber chieftain from the farthest cluster of
+huts he calls his home town would like to see an American school
+here in El-Kerak.  If there were one he'd send his sons to it."
+
+"Okay.  I'll root like a dog for a buried bone."
+
+"Go to it.  That gives you the right to ask questions.  That will
+oblige ben Nazir to introduce you to any one you want to
+interview.  That will explain without any further argument
+whatever weakness you seem to have for talking to men in the
+street like Mahommed ben Hamza.  It would even explain away any
+politeness that I might show you in my capacity of Ichwan.  For
+safety's sake, and to create an impression, I take the line of
+being rude to every one;  but I might reasonably toss a few
+crumbs of condescension to an altruist from foreign parts.  At
+any rate, I'll have to take that chance.  D'you get me?"
+
+"You mean, you'll use me as intermediary? Messages to and from
+ben Hamza and that sort of thing?"
+
+"That's the idea, but there's more to it.  Did you bring that
+Bible along?  Are you superstitious?  Any notions like Long John
+Silver's about its being bad luck to spoil a Bible?  All right.
+Keep it in your pocket to make notes in.  If you can't get the
+whole book to me, tear a page out and send that, or give it to
+me, with the message spelled in dots under the words.  Make the
+dots faint, I've good eyes."
+
+"What sort of notes do you want from me?"
+
+"You mustn't mistake me for the prophet Ezekiel," he answered,
+grinning.  "'Thus saith the Lord' is all right when you know what
+you're talking about.  All I know for certain is that I've got
+to bag Abdul Ali.  If you get information that looks important
+to you, get it to me in the way I've told you, that's all.
+Don't be caught talking to me.  Don't look friendly.  Don't
+seem interested."
+
+"What else?"
+
+"If you can, keep old Anazeh sober."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Grim nodded meaningly:  "I've known easier jobs!"
+
+"The old sport thinks no more of me than of an express package
+he'd been hired to deliver," I answered.  "Drunk or sober, he'd
+brush me aside like a fly."
+
+"Well--wits were given us to use.  I guess you'll have to use
+yours.  Have you any?"
+
+"How the hell should I know?" I retorted.
+
+"If you find I haven't any, don't blame me."
+
+"I won't," he answered, and I believed him.
+
+"What else besides being dry-nurse to the king of the
+Amalekites?" I asked.
+
+"Don't trust Ahmed."
+
+"He's a good interpreter."
+
+"Yeh--and a poor peg.  You'll have to use him--some.  But don't
+trust him."
+
+"Does old Anazeh know you in that disguise?" I asked.
+
+"No, and he mustn't.  I'll tell you why.  All these people are
+religious fanatics.  A horrible death is the only fate they would
+consider for a man caught masquerading as a holy personage the
+way I'm doing.  But their fanaticism has a way of petering out
+when the gang's not there to see.  In his own village I think
+Anazeh would laugh if I talked this ruse over with him--
+afterwards.  But if he knew about it here, with all these other
+fanatics alert and fanning, he wouldn't dare not to expose me.
+It's a good job you asked that.  If I send any message to Anazeh
+through you, be sure you don't give me away."
+
+"How shall I make him believe the message is from you, then?"
+
+"Begin with 'Jimgrim says.'  He'll recognize the formula.  But if
+he questions that, say 'A lion knows a lion in the dark.'
+That'll serve a double purpose--convince him and jog his memory.
+He ignored a request of mine--once, and I was able to get back at
+him.  Tell you the story some day.  Nowadays he's more or less
+dependable, unless he gets a skin-full of redeye.  Well, make the
+most of your chance to sleep;  you may have to go short later.
+I'm going to saw off a cord or two myself."
+
+He left the room as silently as a ghost.  I don't doubt that he
+slept peacefully.  Subsequent acquaintance with him convinced me
+that he can go to sleep almost anywhere in any circumstances.
+And that is a very great gift, for it enables its owner to wear
+down any dozen who must sleep for stated hours at fixed
+intervals.  Grim snatches his whenever the chance comes, and goes
+without with apparent indifference.  He told me once that he
+dreams nearly all the time he is asleep.  But the dreams don't
+seem to trouble him.  I believe he dreams out the key to whatever
+problem puzzles him at the moment.
+
+My own sleep was done for that night, his advice notwithstanding.
+I lay listening to Anazeh's thunderous snores and naturally
+enough imagining every possible contingency and dozens that were
+totally impossible.  Nothing turned out in the least like any of
+my forecasts;  but that was not for want of trying to foresee it
+all.  I don't seem to possess any of that quiet gift of waiting
+to deal with each development on its merits, as and when it
+comes.  I have to speculate, and speculation is the ene my
+of peace.
+
+Looking back, I don't think I felt a bit afraid of the immediate
+future;  but that was due to ignorance of nearly all that the
+present held.  I think that was part of Grim's reason for helping
+me to reach El-Kerak in the first place;  he counted on my
+ignorance of danger to keep me cool-headed.  It is true, it did
+dawn on me that if my host were to suspect me of intriguing under
+cover of his protection, the protection might cease with
+disconcerting abruptness.  I realized to some extent what a
+predicament that would be.  But on the whole, I think the only
+real worry was the definite task Grim had given me--the
+thankless, and very likely desperate, inglorious one of trying to
+keep old Anazeh sober.
+
+Of course, the Koran forbids wine.  But whiskey is not wine.  And
+if you mix whiskey and wine together they cease to be either;
+they become a commodity of which the Prophet knew nothing and
+which he therefore did not forbid.  But if you introduce such a
+mixture into the stomach, and thence into the brain of an already
+fiery Bedouin;  and then introduce the Bedouin to trouble;  and
+if, in addition to the trouble, you provide impertinent, alien,
+and what he calls infidel restraint, it is fair to presume that
+the mixture might explode.
+
+It seemed to me I had been given too much to do.  In order to get
+introductions to the notables I must first get ben Nazir into a
+proper frame of mind.  Then, stammering in an alien tongue, I
+must make friends with chieftains who had never even heard of me;
+and that, when their minds were busy with another matter.  I must
+keep in touch with ben Hamza, and convey his messages to Grim
+without being seen or arousing suspicion.  In addition to all
+that I must keep sober by some means an old savage armed with
+two rifles and a knife, who had twenty cut-throats at his beck
+and call!
+
+While I pondered the problem in all its impossible bearings, loud
+snores to right and left of me, tenor and bass by turns,
+announced that Jimgrim and Anazeh were as blissfully oblivious to
+my worries as the bedbugs were that had come out of hiding and
+discovered me.  I began to feel homesick.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Six
+
+"That man will repay study."
+
+
+I got my first shot at Anazeh at dawn, when the muezzin began
+wailing over the city;  and I missed badly with both barrels.
+The old sheikh looked into my room, presumably to see if I was
+still alive, since he had guaranteed to see me safely back again
+across the Jordan, before rounding up his rascals for morning
+prayer.  They prayed together whenever possible, Anazeh keeping
+count of their genuflections.
+
+You could tell he had been drinking the night before the minute
+he thrust his head into the room.  He smelt like the lees of a
+rum barrel, and the rims of his eyes were red.
+
+Seeing I was awake he gave me the courteous, full-sounding "Allah
+ysabbhak bilkhair," and I asked him where he had dined the night
+before.  He mumbled something into his beard that I could not
+catch, but he could not have told me much more plainly to go to
+hell, even in plain English.  However, I had to get a foothold
+somewhere, so I said that I had heard that the liquor in El-Kerak
+was poisonous.
+
+As far as I understood his answer, he implied that it likely
+would be poisonous in the sort of place where I would buy it, but
+that he, Anazeh, need not be told how to suck eggs by any such a
+greenhorn as me.
+
+I tried him again.  I said that liquor taken in quantity would
+kill a man.
+
+"So will one bullet!" he answered.  "But, whereas a bullet in the
+belly causes pain before death, moiyit ilfadda (aqua fortis)
+causes pleasure;  and a man dies either way."
+
+He turned to go, rattling two rifle-butts against the door, but I
+had one last try to get on terms and said I hoped to see him at
+breakfast, or shortly afterward.
+
+"God is the giver both of eyesight and the things to see," he
+answered.  "I go to pray.  God will guide my footsteps afterward."
+
+I did not feel I had really made much headway, but I fared rather
+better with my host downstairs, who either did not pray with such
+enthusiasm or else had forestalled the muezzin.  At any rate, he
+was waiting for me near a table spread with sweet cakes and good
+French coffee.  After the usual string of pleasantries he became
+suddenly confidential, over-acting the part a little, as a man
+does who has something rather disagreeable up his sleeve that
+he means to spring on you presently.
+
+"I have been busy since an hour before dawn.  I have been
+consulting with my friend Suliman ben Saoud.  The situation here
+is very serious.  As long as you are my guest you are perfectly
+safe;  but if I were to send you away, the assembled notables
+might suspect you of being a spy, and might accuse me of
+harbouring a spy.  Do you see?  They would suppose you were
+returning to Jerusalem with information for the British.  That
+would have most unpleasant consequences--for both of us!"
+
+Clearly, Grim in the guise of ben Saoud had been busy, and it was
+up to me to seize my cue alertly.  I was at pains to look
+alarmed.  Ben Nazir grew solicitous.
+
+"Rest assured, you are safe as my guest.  But Suliman ben Saoud
+was annoyed to think a stranger should be here at such a time as
+this.  He took me to task about you.  He is also my guest, as I
+reminded him, but he is a truculent fellow.  He insisted that the
+assembled notables have the right to satisfaction regarding your
+bona fides.  It was no use my saying, as I did repeatedly, that I
+personally guarantee you.  He asked me how much I know about you.
+I had to confess that what I actually know amounts to very
+little."
+
+"Well?" I said.  "What does the old grouch want?"
+
+"He thinks that you should be presented to the assembled notables
+at noon today.  In fact, he demands that they should catechize
+you regarding your ideas about a school."
+
+"I have no objection."
+
+"But, I am sorry to have to add this:  it is probable the
+notables will insist on your remaining in El-Kerak until after
+that shall have taken place which they have been summoned to
+decide on.  They will not risk your returning before the--"
+
+
+"Before what?"
+
+"The--ah--they contemplate a raid!"
+
+"So I'm a prisoner?"
+
+"No, no!  Mon dieu, what do you think of me!  Even the fanatical
+Suliman ben Saoud saw the force of the argument when I spoke of
+the sanctity of any guest here on my invitation.  But he thinks--
+and I agree with him, that as a precaution you should first call
+on Sheikh Abdul Ali.  You will find him a very agreeable man, who
+will receive you with proper courtesy.  He is here from Damascus,
+and exercises a great influence.  Once his mind is at ease about
+you, he will satisfy all the others.  Are you agreeable?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+So we smoked a cigarette together after the coffee, and then set
+forth on foot, for the distance was not great, preceded and
+surrounded by armed retainers.  I imagine the armed men were more
+for the sake of appearance than protection.  Ben Nazir seemed
+popular.  But the escort drove other pedestrians out of the way
+as roughly as they did the unspeakable dogs that infested every
+offal-heap.  The street that we followed was, of course, the open
+sewer for the houses on either hand, and its condition was a
+credit to the mangy curs that so resented our intrusion.
+
+Abdul Ali's house, if his it was, was a fairly big square
+building near the middle of the town.  It did not look unlike one
+of the old-time New York precinct stations, with its big windows
+protected by iron grilles, and a flight of stone steps leading up
+to a door exactly in the middle of the front wall.
+
+There were thirty or forty capable-looking men hanging about the
+place.  Abdul Ali owned more than one camel caravan, and every
+man connected with the business looked on himself as a member of
+one big feudal family.  They were all armed.  Most of them had
+modern rifles.
+
+We were admitted into a room that faced on the street, furnished
+entirely in the eastern style, except for two gilt chairs against
+the wall.  The walls were hung with carpets and the floor was
+covered with Bokhara rugs three deep.
+
+No doubt in order to emphasize his own importance, Abdul Ali kept
+us waiting in that room for ten minutes before he condescended to
+enter.  But when he did come at last he was at pains to seem
+agreeable, which was not quite his natural attitude.
+
+I had never seen a more offensive personality, although at the
+first glance he did not arouse actual dislike.  Distaste for him
+dawned, and grew.  He was certainly not physically attractive,
+although the Syrian Arab costume made him picturesque.  The first
+thing I noticed was the fatness of his hands--those of a giver of
+dishonest gifts.  When he shook hands you felt in some subtle way
+that he was sure your conscience was for sale, that he would
+purchase it for any reasonable figure, and that he believed he
+had plenty of money with which to buy you and all your relatives.
+
+He was a little puffy under the eyes, had a firm mouth, rather
+thick lips, and his small black moustache was turned up like the
+Kaiser's, which gave him a cockily self-assured appearance.  For
+the rest, he was a rather military-looking person, although his
+flowing robe partly concealed that;  stockily rather than heavily
+built;  and of rather more than middle height.  He wore one ring--a
+sapphire of extraordinary brilliance, of which he was immensely
+proud.  When I noticed it he said at once that it had been given
+him by the late Sultan Abdul Hamid.
+
+He spoke German from choice, so we conversed in German, which
+annoyed ben Nazir, who could not understand a word of it.  And
+from first to last throughout that interview, and subsequently to
+the point where Jimgrim out-maneuvered and out-played him, he
+relied on the German philosophy of self-assertion that teaches
+how to get and keep the upper hand by making yourself believe in
+your own super-intelligence and then speaking, acting, making
+plans in logical accord with that belief.  It works finely until
+somebody spoils the whole thing by pricking the super-intelligence
+bladder and letting out all the wind.
+
+Although he spoke German, he was not by any means pro-German in
+his motives.  He was at pains to make that clear.  Evidently he
+had been pro-German once, until he saw the writing on the wall.
+He was conscious of the need to offset past prejudices before
+suggesting his enormous ability along advanced lines.
+
+"You come at an interesting time," he said.  "You find us in
+transition.  Before the War, and almost until the end of it, most
+Arabs believed in the German destiny.  English gold commanded the
+allegiance of an Arab army, but every last man in that army was
+ready to follow the German standard at the proper time.  That
+only shows how ignorant these people are.  As soon as it became
+evident that the Arab destiny lies in the hands of Arabs
+themselves most of them immediately began to clamour for an
+American mandate, because that would give them temporary masters
+who could protect them, yet at the same time who would be too
+ignorant of real conditions to prevent secret preparations for a
+pan-Arabian revolt.  All very absurd, of course."
+
+He had no idea how absurd he himself appeared.  He launched into
+a tirade designed to make him seem a super-statesman in the eyes
+of a stranger who did not care what he was.  The more he talked
+himself into a delirium of self-esteem the less his character
+impressed me.  I even ran into the danger of under-estimating him
+because he liked himself so much.
+
+"I'm here to look into the prospects for a school," I said.
+
+"Yes, yes.  Very estimable.  You shall have my support."  He
+paused for me to fawn on him, and my neglect to do it spurred him
+to further self-revelation.
+
+"You must look to me for support if you hope for success.  There
+is no cohesion here without me.  I am the only man in El-Kerak to
+whom they all listen, and even I have difficulty in uniting them
+at times.  But a school is a good idea, and under my auspices you
+will succeed."
+
+For the moment I thought he suspected me of wanting to teach
+school myself.  I hastened to correct the impression:
+
+"All I promise to do is to tell people in the States who might be
+interested."
+
+"Exactly."  He had been coming at this point all along in his own
+way.  "So there is no hurry.  It makes no difference that you
+must stay in El-Kerak a little longer than you intended.  You
+shall be presented to the council of notables under my auspices.
+In my judgment it is important that you remain here for some
+little time."
+
+I suppose the men who can analyze their thoughts, and separate
+the wise impulses from the rash ones, are the people whom the
+world calls men of destiny and whom history later assigns to its
+halls of fame.  The rest of us simply act from pique, prejudice,
+passion or whatever other emotion is in charge.  I know I did.
+It was resentment.  It was so immensely disagreeable to be
+patronized by this puffy-eyed sensualist that I could not resist
+the impulse to argue with him.
+
+"I don't see the force of that," said I.  "My plans are made to
+return to Jerusalem tomorrow."
+
+I could not have done better as it happened.  I suppose there is
+some theory that has been written down in books to explain how
+these things work, at any rate to the satisfaction of the fellow
+who wrote the book.  But Grim, referring to it afterward, called
+it naked luck.  I would rather agree with Grim than argue with
+any inky theorist on earth, having seen too many theories upset.
+Luck looks to me like a sweeter lady, and more worshipful than
+any of the goddesses they rename nowadays and then dissect in
+clinics.  At any rate, by naked luck I prodded Abdul Ali where he
+kept his supply of mistakes.  Instead of calling my bluff, as he
+doubtless should have done, he set out to win me over to his
+point of view.  Whichever way you analyze it in the light of
+subsequent events, the only possible conclusion is that it was my
+turn to be lucky and Abdul Ali's to make a fool of himself.
+Nobody could have made a fool of him better than he did.
+
+"I must dissuade you," he said, trying to hide wilfulness under
+an unpleasant smile.  "I will offer inducements."
+
+"They'll have to be heavy," I said, "to weigh against what I have
+in mind."
+
+He had kept ben Nazir and me standing all this time.  Now he
+offered me one of the chairs, took the other himself, and
+motioned ben Nazir to a cushion near the window.  A servant
+brought in the inevitable coffee and cigarettes.  Then he laid a
+hand on my knee for special emphasis--a fat, pale, unprincipled
+hand, with that great sapphire gleaming on the middle finger.
+
+"It happens that this idea of a school comes just at the right
+moment.  I have been searching my mind for just some such idea to
+lay before the notables.  As we are talking a language that none
+else here understands, I can safely take you into confidence.  A
+raid is being planned into British territory."
+
+He paused to let that sink in, and tapped my knee with his
+disgusting fingers until I could have struck him from irritation.
+
+"There is, however, an element of disagreement.  There is
+uncertainty as to the outcome, in the minds of some of the chiefs
+who live nearest to the border.  The feeling among them is that
+perhaps I am urging them on in order to serve my own ambition at
+their expense.  They appreciate the opportunity to loot;  but
+they say that the British will hit back afterwards, and they,
+being nearest to the border, will suffer most;  whereas I stand
+to gain all and to lose nothing.  Very absurd, of course, but
+that is their argument."
+
+"Surely," I said, "you don't expect me to take my coat off and
+preach a jihad against the British?"
+
+"Im Gotteswillen!  No, no, no!  This is my meaning:  if I can go
+before them with the offer of a school for El-Kerak, which the
+very worst scoundrel among them desires with all his ignorant
+heart;  and if I can produce a distinguished gentleman from
+America, present among them on my invitation for the sole purpose
+of making the arrangements for such a school, that will convince
+them that I have their interests really at heart.  Do you see?"
+
+Again the irritating fingers drumming on my knee.  I did not
+answer for fear of betraying ill-temper.
+
+"I am a statesman, sir.  I understand the arguments with which
+whole nations may deceive themselves.  I have made it my
+profession to detect the trends of thought and the tides of
+unrest.  Psychological moments are for me a fascinating study.  I
+can recognize them."
+
+He laid the fat hand on my shoulder for a change, and tried to
+look into my eyes;  but I was watching the edge of a curtain at
+the far end of the room.
+
+"Now, to you, an American, our local dispute means nothing.  This
+raid is no affair of yours.  You wash your hands of it.  You, an
+altruist, are interested only in a school.  I offer you
+opportunity, building, subsidy, guarantees.  You reciprocate by
+giving me a talking point.  I shall make use of the opportunity.
+That is settled.  And, let me see, I promised you inducements,
+didn't I?"
+
+He looked, at me and I looked at him.  He waited for a hint of
+some sort, but I made no move to help him out.
+
+"What shall we say?"
+
+I was as interested in the result of his appraisal as he was in
+making it.  Whether complimentary or not, another's calculated
+judgment of your character is a fascinating thing to wait for.
+
+"I think you will be getting full value.  I shall introduce you
+to all the notables," he said at last.    "To a man of your
+temperament it will be a privilege to attend the council, and to
+know in advance all that is going to happen.  There will be no
+objection to that, because it is already decided you will remain
+in El-Kerak until after the--er--raid.  The notables will
+understand from me that your mouth is sealed until after the
+event.  You shall be let into our secrets.  There--is that
+not equitable?"
+
+It was shrewd.  I did not believe for a minute that he would let
+me into all their secrets, but he could not have imagined a
+greater temptation for me.  Since I would not have taken his word
+that black was not white, I did not hesitate to pretend to agree
+to his terms.
+
+"I must have an interpreter," I said.  "Otherwise I shall
+understand very little."
+
+"I will supply you an interpreter--a good one."
+
+"No, thank you.  Any man of yours might only tell me what he
+thought correct for me to hear.  If I'm to get a price for my
+services, I want the full price.  I want to hear everything.  I
+must be allowed to bring my own interpreter."
+
+"Who would he be?"
+
+"I don't know yet."
+
+"That man Ahmed, for instance?  I have been told he is one of
+your party.  Ahmed would do very well."
+
+"No, not Ahmed."
+
+"Who then?"
+
+"I will find a man."
+
+He hesitated.  If ever a man was reviewing all the possible
+contingencies, murder of me included, behind a mask of superficial
+courtesy, that man was he.
+
+"He should be a man acceptable to the notables," he said at last.
+"I ought to know his name in advance."
+
+"I must have unfettered choice, or I won't attend the
+mejlis."  [Council]
+
+"Oh, very well. Only the interpreter, too, will have to remain
+afterward in El-Kerak."
+
+I looked at that curtain again, for it was moving in a way that
+no draft from the open window could account for.  But at last the
+movement was explained.  Before Abdul Ali could speak again a man
+stepped out from behind it, crossed the room, and went out
+through the door, closing it silently behind him.  He was a man I
+knew, and the last man I had expected to see in that place.  I
+suppose Abdul Ali noticed my look of surprise.
+
+"You know him?" he asked.
+
+"By sight.  He was at Sheikh ben Nazir's house yesterday."
+
+"That is Suliman ben Saoud, a stranger from Arabia, but a man
+of great influence because of his connection with the Ichwan
+movement.  If you are interested in our types that man will
+repay study."
+
+"Good.  I'll try to study him," said I.
+
+It was all I could do to keep a straight face.  So Jimgrim was
+the source of Abdul Ali's inspirations!  I wondered what subtle
+argument he could have used to make the sheikh so keen on baiting
+his hook with the school proposal.  His nerve, in waiting behind
+that curtain until he knew his scheme had succeeded, and then
+walking out bold as brass to let me know that he had overheard
+everything, was what amused me.  But I managed not to smile.
+
+"What time is the mejlis?"  I asked.
+
+"At noon."
+
+"Then I'll go and hunt up my interpreter."
+
+Ben Nazir came out with me, in a blazing bad temper.  He was as
+jealous as a pet dog, and inclined to visit the result on me.
+
+"Very polite, I am sure!  Most refined!  Most courteous!  In your
+country, sir, does a guest reward his host for hospitality by
+talking in a language that his host can't understand?  Perhaps
+you would rather transfer your presence to Abdul Ali's house?
+Pray do not consider yourself beholden to me, in case you would
+prefer his hospitality!"
+
+I tried in vain to pacify him.  I explained that the choice of
+language had been Abdul Ali's, and offered to tell him now in
+French every word that had passed.  But he would not listen.
+
+"It would not be difficult for a man of your intelligence to make
+up a story," he said rudely.
+
+"Abdul Ali can talk French.  If it had been intended that I
+should know the truth that conversation would have been in
+French.  Shall I send your bag to Abdul Ali's house?"
+
+"No," I said.  "Give it to Anazeh.  He is answerable for
+my safety until I reach Palestine again.  Thank you for a
+night's lodging."
+
+He walked away in a great huff, and I set out for the house of
+Abu Shamah, using my scant store of Arabic to ask the way.
+Mahommed ben Hamza was lolling on the stone veranda, gossiping
+with half-a-dozen men.  He came the minute I beckoned him.
+
+"I've seen Jimgrim," I said.  "You're to come with me at noon to
+the mejlis as my interpreter."
+
+He grinned delightedly.
+
+"And see here, you smelly devil:  Here's money.  Buy yourself a
+clean shirt, a new coat, and some soap.  Wash yourself from head
+to foot, and put the new clothes on, before you meet me at the
+castle gate ten minutes before noon.  Those are Jimgrim's orders,
+do you understand?"
+
+"Taht il-amr! (Yours to command)" he answered laughing.
+
+I went and bought myself an awful meal at the house of a man who
+rolled Kabobs between his filthy fingers.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Seven
+
+"Who gives orders to me?"
+
+
+The wonderful thing about Moab is that everything happens in a
+story-book setting, with illustrations by Maxfield Parrish and
+Wyeth and Joe Coll, and all the rest of them, whichever way
+you look.
+
+
+Imagine a blue sky--so clear-blue and pure that you can see
+against it the very feathers in the tails of wheeling kites, and
+know that they are brown, not black.  Imagine all the houses, and
+the shacks between them, and the poles on which the burlap
+awnings hang, painted on flat canvas and stood up against that
+infinite blue.  Stick some vultures in a row along a roof-top--
+purplish--bronze they'll look between the tiles and sky.  Add
+yellow camels, gray horses, striped robes, long rifles, and a
+searching sun-dried smell.  And there you have El-Kerak, from
+the inside.
+
+From any point along the broken walls or the castle roof you can
+see for fifty miles over scenery invented by the Master-Artist,
+with the Jordan like a blue worm in the midst of yellow-and-green
+hills twiggling into a turquoise sea.
+
+The villains stalk on-stage and off again sublimely aware of
+their setting.  The horses prance, the camels saunter, the very
+street-dogs compose themselves for a nap in the golden sun, all
+in perfect harmony with the piece.  A woman walking with a stone
+jar on her head (or, just as likely, a kerosene can) looks as if
+she had just stepped out of eternity for the sake of the picture.
+And not all the kings and kaisers, cardinals and courtezans
+rolled into one great swaggering splurge of majesty could hold a
+candle to a ragged Bedouin chief on a flea-bitten pony, on the
+way to a small-town mejlis.
+
+So it was worth a little inconvenience, and quite a little risk
+to see those chiefs arrive at the castle gate, toss their reins
+to a brother cut-throat, and swagger in, the poorest and least
+important timing their arrival, when they could, just in advance
+of an important man so as to take precedence of him and delay
+his entrance.
+
+Mindful of my charge to keep Anazeh sober, and more deadly afraid
+of it than of all the other risks, I hung about waiting for him,
+hoping he would arrive before Abdul Ali or ben Nazir.  I wanted
+to go inside and be seated before either of those gentry came.
+But not a bit of it.  I saw Anazeh ride up at the head of his
+twenty men, halt at a corner, and ask a question.  His men were in
+military order, and looked not only ready but anxious to charge
+the crowd and establish their old chief's importance.
+
+Mahommed ben Hamza, not quite so smelly in his new clothes, was
+standing at my elbow.
+
+"Sheikh Anazeh beckons you," he said.
+
+So the two of us worked our way leisurely through the crowd
+toward the side-street down which Anazeh had led his party.  We
+found them looking very spruce and savage, four abreast, drawn up
+in the throat of an alley, old Anazeh sitting his horse at their
+head like a symbol of the ancient order waiting to assault the
+new.  My horse was close beside him, held by Ahmed, acting
+servitor on foot.
+
+The old man let loose the vials of his wrath on me the minute I
+drew near, and Mahommed ben Hamza took delicious pleasure in
+translating word for word.
+
+"Is that the way an effendi in my care should be seen at such a
+time--on foot?  Am I a maskin* that you do not ride?  Is the
+horse not good enough?" [*Poor devil]
+
+I made ben Hamza explain that I was to attend the mejlis as
+Sheikh Abdul Ali's guest.  But that only increased his wrath.
+
+"So said ben Nazir!  Shall a lousy Damascene trick me out of
+keeping my oath?  You are in my safekeeping until you tread on
+British soil again, and my honour is concerned in it!  No doubt
+that effeminate schemer of schemes would like to display you at
+the mejlis as his booty, but you are mine!  Did you think you are
+not under obligation to me?"
+
+I answered pretty tactfully.  I said that Allah had undoubtedly
+created him to be a protector of helpless wayfarers and the very
+guardian of honour.  Mahommed ben Hamza added to the compliments
+while rendering mine into Arabic.  But though Anazeh's wrath was
+somewhat mollified, he was not satisfied by any means.
+
+"Am I a dog," he demanded, "that I should be slighted for the
+sake of that Damascene?"
+
+It looked to me like the proper moment to try out Grim's
+magic formula.
+
+"You are the father of lions.  And a lion knows a lion in the
+dark!" said I.
+
+The effect was instantaneous.  He puffed his cheeks out in
+astonishment, and sucked them in again.  The overbearing anger
+vanished as he leaned forward in the saddle to scrutinize my
+face.  It was clear that he thought my use of that phrase might
+just possibly have been an accident.
+
+"Jimgrim says--"
+
+"Ah!  What says Jimgrim?  Who are you that know where he is?"
+
+"A lion knows a lion in the dark!" I said again, that there might
+be no mistake about my having used the words deliberately.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Praised be Allah!  Blessings upon His Prophet!  What
+says Jimgrim?"
+
+"Jimgrim says I am to keep by Anazeh and watch him, lest he drink
+strong drink and lose his honour by becoming like a beast without
+decency or understanding!"
+
+"Mount your horse, effendi.  Sit beside me."
+
+I complied.  Ben Hamza took the place of Ahmed, who went to the
+rear looking rather pleased to get out of the limelight.
+
+"What else says Jimgrim?" asked Anazeh.
+
+"There will be a message presently, providing Sheikh Anazeh
+keeps sober!"
+
+To say that I was enjoying the game by this time is like trying
+to paint heaven with a tar-brush.  You've got to be on the inside
+of an intrigue before you can appreciate the thrill of it.
+Nobody who has not had the chance to mystify a leader of cheerful
+murderers in a city packed with conspirators, with the shadow of
+a vulture on the road in front, and fanged death waiting to be
+let loose, need talk to me of excitement.
+
+"Well and good," said Anazeh.  "When Jimgrim speaks, I listen!"
+
+Can you beat that?  Have you ever dreamed you were possessed of
+some magic formula like "Open Sesame," and free to work with it
+any miracle you choose?  Was the dream good?  I was awake--on a
+horse--in a real eastern alley--with twenty thieves as picturesque
+as Ali Baba's, itching for action behind me!
+
+"Abdul Ali of Damascus thinks he will enter the mejlis last and
+create a great sensation," said Anazeh.  "That son of infamies
+deceives himself.  I shall enter last.  I shall bring you.  There
+will be no doubt who is important!"
+
+Just as he spoke there clattered down the street at right angles
+to us a regular cavalcade of horsemen led by no less than Abdul
+Ali with a sycophant on either hand.  Cardinal Wolsey, or some
+other wisehead, once remarked that a king is known by the
+splendour of his servants.  Abdul Ali's parasites were dressed
+for their part in rose-coloured silk and mounted on beautiful
+white Arab horses so severely bitted that they could not help
+but prance.
+
+Abdul Ali, on the other hand, played more a king-maker's role,
+dark and sinister in contrast to their finery, on a dark brown
+horse that trotted in a business-like, hurry-up-and-get-it-done-
+with manner.  He rode in the German military style, and if you
+can imagine the Kaiser in Arab military head-dress, with high
+black riding boots showing under a brown cloak, you have his
+description fairly closely.  The upturned moustaches and the
+scowl increased the suggestion, and I think that was deliberate.
+
+"A dog--offspring of dogs!  Curse his religion and his bed!"
+growled Anazeh in my ear.
+
+The old sheikh allowed his enemy plenty of time.  To judge by the
+way the men behind us gathered up their reins and closed in knee-
+to-knee, they would have liked to spoil Abdul Ali's afternoon by
+riding through his procession and breaking its formation.  But
+Anazeh had his mind set, and they seemed to know better than to
+try to change it for him.  We waited until noises in the street
+died down, and then Ahmed was sent to report on developments.
+
+"Abdul Ali has gone into the mejlis and the doors are closed," he
+announced five minutes later.  That seemed to suit Anazeh
+perfectly, for his eyes lit up with satisfaction.  Evidently
+being excluded from the council was his meat and drink.  He gave
+no order, but rode forward and his men followed as a snake's tail
+follows its head, four abreast, each man holding his rifle as
+best suited him;  that gave them a much more warlike appearance
+than if they had imitated the western model of exact conformity.
+
+We rode down-street toward the castle at a walk, between very
+interested spectators who knew enough to make way without being
+told.  And at the castle gate we were challenged by a man on
+foot, who commanded about twice our number of armed guards.
+
+"The hour is passed," he announced.  "The order is to admit no
+late-comers."
+
+"Who gives orders to me?" Anazeh retorted.
+
+"It was agreed by all the notables."
+
+"I did not agree.  Wallah!  Thou dog of a devil's dung-heap, say
+you I am not a notable?"
+
+"Nevertheless--"
+
+"Open that gate!"
+
+They opened it.  Two of the men began to do it even before their
+chief gave the reluctant order.  Anazeh started to ride through
+with his men crowding behind.  But that, it seemed, was
+altogether too much liberty to take with the arrangements.
+Shouting all together, the gate-guards surged in to take hold of
+bridles and force Anazeh's dependents back.  Teeth and eyes
+flashed.  It looked like the makings of a red-hot fight.
+
+"No retainers allowed within the gate!  Principals only!" roared
+the captain of the guard, in Arabic that sounded like explosions
+of boiling oil.
+
+Anazeh, Mahommed ben Hamza and I were already within the
+courtyard.  Four of Anazeh's followers made their way, through
+after us before any one could prevent them.  At that moment there
+came a tremendous clattering of hoofs and the crowd outside the
+gate scattered this and that way in front of about a hundred of
+the other chiefs' dependents, who had dutifully stayed outside
+and had sought shade some little distance off.
+
+Whether the sudden disturbance rattled him, or whether he
+supposed that all the other truculent ruffians were going to try
+to follow our example, at any rate the man on duty lost his head
+and shouted to his men to shut the gate again.  Before they could
+do it every one of Anazeh's gang had forced his way through.
+There we all were on forbidden ground, with a great iron-studded
+gate slammed and bolted behind us.  To judge by the row outside
+the keepers of the gate had got their hands full.
+
+In front of us was a short flight of stone steps, and another
+great wooden door set in stone posts under a Roman arch.  There
+were only two armed men leaning against it.  They eyed Anazeh and
+our numbers nervously.
+
+"Open!"
+
+Anazeh could use his voice like a whip-crack.  They fumbled with
+the great bolt and obeyed, swinging the door wide.  I thought for
+a minute that my arrogant old protector meant to ride up the
+steps and through the door into the mejlis hall with all his men;
+but he was not quite so high-handed as that.
+
+After a good long look through the door, I suppose to make sure
+there was no ambush inside waiting for him, he dismounted, and
+ordered his men to occupy a stable-building across the courtyard,
+from which it would have been impossible to dislodge them without
+a siege.  Then, when he had seen the last man disappear into it,
+he led me and Mahommed ben Hamza up the steps.
+
+Ben Hamza was grinning like a schoolboy, beside himself with
+delight at the prospect of elbowing among notables, as well as
+inordinately proud of his new clothes and the smell of imported
+soap that hung about him like an aura.  But Anazeh looked like an
+ancient king entering into his own.  Surely there was never
+another man who could stride so majestically and seem so
+conscious of his own ability to override all law.
+
+We passed under the shadowy arch and down a cool stone passage to
+yet another heavy door that barred our way.  Anazeh thundered on
+it with his rifle-butt, for there were no attendants there to do
+his bidding.  There was no answer.  Only a murmur of voices
+within.  So he thundered again, and this time the door opened
+about six inches.  A face peered through the opening cautiously,
+and asked what was wanted.
+
+"What is this?" asked Anazeh.  "Is a mejlis held without my
+presence?  Since when?"
+
+"You are too late!"
+
+The face disappeared.  Some one tried to close the door.
+Anazeh's foot prevented.
+
+"Open!" he demanded.  The butt of his rifle thundered again on
+the wood.
+
+There was a babel of voices inside, followed by sudden silence.
+Anazeh made a sign to Mahommed ben Hamza and me.  We all three
+laid our shoulders against the door and shoved hard.  Evidently
+that was not expected;  it swung back so suddenly that we were
+hard put to it to keep our feet.  The man who had opened the door
+lay prone on the floor in front of us with his legs in the air,
+and Anazeh laughed at him--the bitterest sign of disrespect one
+Arab can pay to another.
+
+"Since when does the word of a Damascene exclude an honourable
+sheikh from a mejlis in El-Kerak?" asked Anazeh, standing in
+the doorway.
+
+He was in no hurry to enter.  The dramatic old ruffian understood
+too well the value of the impression he made standing there.  The
+room was crowded with about eighty men, seated on mats and
+cushions, with a piece of carpeted floor left unoccupied all down
+the centre--a high-walled room with beautifully vaulted ceiling,
+and a mullioned window from which most of the glass was gone.
+The walls were partly covered with Persian and other mats, but
+there was almost no furniture other than water-pipes and little
+inlaid tables on which to rest coffee-cups and matches.  The air
+was thick with smoke already, and the draft from the broken
+windows wafted it about in streaky clouds.
+
+Every face in the room was turned toward Anazeh.  I kept as much
+as possible behind him, for you can't look dignified in that
+setting if all you have on is a stained golf suit, that you have
+slept in.  It seemed all right to me to let the old sheikh have
+all the limelight.
+
+But he knew better.  Perhaps my erstwhile host ben Nazir had
+understood a little German after all.  More likely he had divined
+Abdul Ali's purpose to make use of me.  Certainly he had poured
+the proper poison in Anazeh's ear, and the old man understood my
+value to a nicety.
+
+He took me by the arm and led me in, Mahommed ben Hamza following
+like a dog that was too busy wagging its tail to walk straight.
+You would have thought Anazeh and I were father and son by
+the way he leaned toward me and found a way for me among the
+crowded cushions.
+
+He had no meek notions about choosing a low place.  Expecting to
+be taken at his own valuation, he chose a high place to begin
+with.  There were several unoccupied cushions near the door, and
+there were half-a-dozen servants busy in a corner with coffee-
+pots and cakes.  He prodded one of the servants and ordered him
+to take two cushions to a place he pointed out, up near the
+window close to Abdul Ali.  There was no room there.  That
+was the seat of the mighty.  You could not have dropped a
+handkerchief between the men who wanted to be nearest the throne
+of influence.  But Anazeh solved that riddle.  He strode, stately
+and magnificent, up the middle of the carpet amid a mutter of
+imprecations.  And when one more than ordinarily indignant sheikh
+demanded to know what he meant by it, he paused in front of him
+and laid his right hand on my shoulder.  (There was a loaded
+rifle in his left.)
+
+"Who offers indignity to a distinguished guest?" he demanded.
+
+The question was addressed to everybody in the room.  He took
+care they were all aware of it.  His stern eyes traveled from
+face to face.
+
+"My men, who escorted him here, are outside the door.  They can
+enter and escort him away, if there are none here who understand
+how to treat the stranger in our midst!"
+
+There was goose-flesh all over me, and I did not even try to look
+unembarrassed.  A man's wits, if he has any, work swiftly when he
+looks like being torn to pieces at a moment's notice.  It seemed
+to me that the less insolent I appeared, the less likely they
+were to vent their wrath on me.  I tried to look as if I didn't
+understand I was intruding--as if I expected a welcome.
+
+"Good!" Anazeh whispered in my ear.  "You do well."
+
+There was a murmur of remonstrance.  The sheikh who had dared to
+rebuke Anazeh found the resentment turned against himself.
+Somebody told him sharply to mend his manners.  Anazeh, shrewd
+old opportunist, promptly directed the servant to place cushions
+on the edge of the carpet, in front of the first row of those
+who wished to appear important.  That obliged the front rank
+to force the men behind them backward, closer to the wall, so
+that room could be made for us without our trespassing on the
+forbidden gangway.
+
+So I sat down in the front row, five cushions from Abdul Ali.
+Anazeh squatted beside me with his rifle across his knees.  Then
+Mahommed ben Hamza forced himself down between me and the man on
+my left, using his left elbow pretty generously and making the
+best of the edges of two cushions.  As far as I could see there
+were not more than half-a-dozen other men in the room who had
+rifles with them, although all had daggers, and some wore curved
+scimitars with gold-inlaid hilts.
+
+As soon as I could summon sufficient nerve to look about me and
+meet the brown, conjecturing eyes that did not seem to know
+whether to resent my presence or be simply curious, I caught the
+eye of Suliman ben Saoud in the front row opposite, ten or twelve
+cushions nearer the door than where I sat.  He did not seem to
+notice me.  The absence of eyebrows made his face expressionless.
+He didn't even vaguely resemble the Major James Grim whom I knew
+him to be.  When his eyes met mine there was no symptom of
+recognition.  If he felt as nervous as I did he certainly did not
+show it behind his mask of insolent indifference.
+
+There was still a good deal of muttered abuse being directed at
+Anazeh.  The atmosphere was electric.  It felt as if violence
+might break out any minute.  Abdul Ali seemed more nervous than
+any one else;  he rocked himself gently on his cushion, as if
+churning the milk of desire into the butter of wise words.
+Suddenly he turned to the sheikh on his left, a handsome man of
+middle age, who wore a scimitar tucked into a gold-embroidered
+sash, and whispered to him.
+
+Ben Hamza whispered to me:  "That sheikh to whom Abdul Ali speaks
+is Ali Shah al Khassib, the most powerful sheikh in these parts.
+A great prince.  A man with many followers."
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib called for prayer to bring the mejlis to
+order.  He was immensely dignified.  The few words he pronounced
+about asking God to bless the assembled notables with wisdom, in
+order that they might reach a right decision, would have been
+perfectly in place in the Capitol at Washington, or anywhere else
+where men foregather to decide on peace or war.
+
+At once a muballir* on his left opened a copy of the Koran on a
+cushion on his lap and began to read from it in a nasal singsong.
+There were various degrees of devoutness, and even of inattention
+shown by those who listened.  Some knelt and prostrated
+themselves.  Others, including Anazeh, sat bolt upright, closing
+their eyes dreamily at intervals.  Over the way, Jim Suliman ben
+Saoud Grim was especially formally devout.  His very life
+undoubtedly depended on being recognized as a fanatic of
+fanatics. [*A Moslem priest who recites prayers.]
+
+But there were three Christian sheikhs in the room.  One of them
+opposite me pulled out a Bible and laid it on the carpet as a
+sort of challenge to the Koran.  It was probably a dangerous
+thing to do, although most Moslems respect the Bible as a very
+sacred book.  The manner in which it was done suggested
+deliberate effort to provoke a quarrel.
+
+Mahommed ben Hamza, dividing his time like a schoolboy in chapel
+between staring about him and attending by fits and starts,
+nudged me in the ribs and whispered:
+
+"See that Christian!  He would not dare do that, only on this
+occasion they like to think that Moslems and Christians are
+agreeing together."
+
+The man who was reading to himself from the Bible looked up and
+caught my eye.  He tapped the book with his finger and nodded, as
+much as to ask why I did not join him.  At once I pulled my own
+from my pocket.  He smiled acknowledgment as I opened it at
+random.  Certainly he thought I did it to support his tactlessly
+ill-timed assertion of his own religion.  Very likely my action,
+since I was a guest and therefore not to be insulted, saved
+him from violence.  Incipient snarls of fanatical indignation
+died away.
+
+But as a matter of fact my eye was on Jim Suliman ben Saoud Grim.
+As the reading from the Koran came to an end amid a murmur of
+responses from all the sheikhs, the crooked-faced Ichwan sat
+upright.  In his sullen, indifferent way, he stared leisurely
+along the line until his eyes rested on me.
+
+As his eyes met mine I marked the place where the Bible was open
+with a pencil, and closed the book, suspecting that he might be
+glad to know where a pencil could be found in a contingency.
+
+He did not smile.  The expression of his face barely changed.
+Just for a second I thought I saw a flicker of amused approval
+pass over the corners of his eyes and mouth.
+
+So I left the book lying where it was with the pencil folded
+in it.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eight
+
+"He will say next that it was he who set the stars in the sky
+over El-Kerak, and makes the moon rise!"
+
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib was the first to speak.  He was heard to the
+end respectfully, none interrupting.  But it seemed obvious from
+their faces that not a few sheikhs were disposed to question both
+his leadership and most of what he said.  Mahommed ben Hamza kept
+up a running whisper of interpretation, breathing into my ear
+until it was wet with condensed breath.  I had to use a
+handkerchief repeatedly.
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib made no definite proposal.  He said that a
+man whom they all knew well had brought news to the effect that
+Emir Feisul was ready to make war on the French in order to drive
+them out of Syria.  That in a case like that, of Moslems against
+kafirs,* there could be no question on which side their hearts or
+their interests lay.  That several dependable men had brought
+word of great unrest in Palestine.  That in all likelihood the
+British would send their army to help the French, in which case
+the Arabs of Palestine were likely to rise in rebellion in the
+British army's rear.  That was the situation.  They were invited
+to consider it, and to decide what action, if any, seemed called
+for. [*Unbelievers.]
+
+He sat down without having risked his leadership by any statement
+of his own attitude.  He had simply reported facts that he
+believed to be true--facts that many of the notables plainly did
+not yet believe, or believed only in part.  There followed a
+perfect babel of argument, during which the servants passed the
+coffee and cakes around.  After that, during every interval
+between speeches there was more coffee and more cakes--wonderful
+cakes made with honey and almonds, immensely filling;  but the
+more full an Arab gets of stodgy food the more his tongue wags,
+until at last he talks himself to sleep.
+
+For ten minutes men were shouting their opinions to one another
+to and fro across the room.  From what I could make of it there
+was not a man who did not advocate putting the whole of Palestine
+to the sword forthwith.  But it was noticeable that when their
+turns came to stand up and address the mejlis their advocacy was
+considerably toned down.  Everybody seemed to want somebody else
+to father the proposal for a raid, although every man pretended
+to be anxious to take part in one.
+
+Old Anazeh on my right sat in grim silence, quizzing each talker
+in turn with puckered eyes.  The only comment he made was a sort
+of internal rumbling, suggestive of the preliminary notice of
+an earthquake.
+
+At the end of ten minutes Sheikh Ali Shah al Khassib brought
+proceedings a step forward by calling for confirmation of the
+news of unrest in Palestine.  Man after man got up, and, since he
+was speaking of others, not of himself, painted the discontent of
+the Palestinians in lurid terms.  Each man tried to outvie the
+other.  The first man said they were anxious regarding the
+Zionists and keen for a solution of the problem.  The second said
+they hated the Zionists, and could see no way out of their
+predicament but by rebellion.  The third said that no Arab in
+Palestine could eat for thinking of the Zionist outrage, and that
+the heart of every man in El-Kerak should bleed for his
+distressed brethren.
+
+To judge by what the fourth and fifth and sixth said, Palestine
+was in a state of scarcely suppressed rebellion, and every living
+Arab in the country was sharpening his sword in secret for the
+butchering of Zionists at the first opportunity.  The seventh man
+said that the Palestine Arabs had never under Turkish rule
+suffered and groaned as they did under the British, and that
+their cry was going up to heaven for relief from the ignominious
+tyranny of Zionist pretensions.
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib chose that ringing appeal as the cue for his
+next move in the game.  He called on Sheikh Abdul Ali, "as well
+known in Damascus as in this place," to address the mejlis.
+
+There was instant silence.  Even the coffee cups ceased rattling.
+Abdul Ali got to his feet with the manner of a man long used to
+swaying assemblies.  He had just the right air of authority;
+exactly the right suggestion of deference;  the quiet smile of
+the man with secrets up his sleeve;  and he paused just long
+enough before speaking to whet curiosity and fix attention.
+
+He did not speak floridly or fast, and he indulged in none of
+those flights of oratory that most Arabs love.  There was ample
+time between his sentences for Mahommed ben Hamza to translate
+into my wet and itching ear.  But every sentence of his speech
+had measured weight in it, and every word he used was chosen for
+its poison or its sting.
+
+He began by reminding them of the war and of Emir Feisul's share
+in it.  Of how they, and their fathers, and their sons had fought
+behind Feisul and helped to establish him in Damascus.  Then he
+spoke of the British promise that the Arabs' should have a
+kingdom of their own, with Damascus for its capital and borders
+to include all the peoples of Arab blood in the Near East.  He
+paused for a full minute after that.  Then:
+
+"But the French are in Syria.  The French, who also promised us
+an Arab kingdom.  They have assembled at the coast an army that
+already threatens Emir Feisul.  The British are in Palestine,
+where they are admitting a horde of Zionist Jews to displace us
+Arabs, rightful owners of the soil.  The British are also in
+Mesopotamia, which they have seized for themselves for the sake
+of the oil which Allah, in His wisdom, created beneath the
+fertile earth.  Feisul makes ready to defend Syria against the
+French.  But the British will march to the aid of the French.
+Can anybody tell me how much of that promise to us Arabs has been
+kept, by either nation, French or British?"
+
+So far he was on thoroughly safe ground.  A man who preached
+against the French could hardly be suspected of being hired by
+the French to do it.  There was nobody there but he who could say
+what Feisul's intentions actually were.  You can say what you
+like against the British anywhere, at any time, and find some one
+to believe what you say.  And it needed no wizardry to prove that
+the Allies had broken every promise they ever made to the Arabs.
+
+"Are you going to sit idle, and let Emir Feisul and the Syrians
+fight the French alone?" he asked, and paused again.
+
+There was a great deal of murmuring--not quite all of it, I
+thought, entirely in his favour.
+
+"What is the alternative to sitting still like camels waiting to
+be doubly burdened?  If you raid Palestine, the local Arabs will
+all rise to your assistance.  The throat of every Zionist from
+the Lebanon to Beersheba will be cut.  There will be plunder
+beyond reckoning.  And you will help Feisul by holding back the
+British army from marching to the assistance of the French.  The
+question is, are you men?--are you Arabs?--are you true Moslems?
+--or do you like to look down from these heights of El-Kerak over
+the home of your ancestors in the hands of so-called Zionists who
+are nothing but Jews, under a new name?"
+
+He sat down before any one could answer him, and whispered to Ali
+Shah al Khassib, who called on another man to speak at once.  It
+was a pretty obvious piece of concerted strategy, but he got by
+with it for the moment.  The general feeling seemed to be in
+favour of a raid if only some one would start it.  Nobody seemed
+to mind much how the decision was arrived at, so long as the
+responsibility was passed to some one else.
+
+The man now called on was a smooth-tongued, tall, lean individual
+with shifty eyes, and a flow of talk of the coffeeshop variety.
+At the end of his first sentence any fool would have known that
+he had been put up to quiz Abdul Ali, in order that Abdul Ali
+might have an excuse to justify himself.  He attacked him very
+mildly, with much careful hedging and apologetic gesture, on the
+ground that possibly the Damascene was ignoring their interests
+while urging them to take action that would suit his own.
+
+Even with that mild criticism he set loose quite a murmur of
+minority agreement.  For the first time since the speech-making
+began Anazeh barked approval.  I thought for a moment the old man
+was going to get to his feet.  But Abdul Ali was up again first,
+and launched on the seas of self-esteem.
+
+If I had not listened to equally childish political maneuvers in
+the States, and seen them succeed for the reason that people who
+want something want also to be fooled into getting it by special
+arguments, it would have seemed incredible that a man, who had
+recently boasted of statesmanship, should dare to make such a
+public ass of himself.  Yet, for fifteen minutes he carried the
+whole meeting with him, and the warmth of his self-satisfied
+emotion made him ooze resplendent sweat.
+
+"Now he speaks of you, effendi," Mahommed ben Hamza whispered;
+and in confirmation of it Anazeh clutched my arm, as if to keep
+the tide of eloquence from washing me away.
+
+Had the British done anything for the country this side of
+Jordan?  Anything for the people's education, for instance?  No!
+Instead, they had taken away the missionaries.  Better than
+nothing were those missionaries.  They had their faults.  They
+undermined religion.  But they taught.  And the British had
+called them in, giving some ridiculous excuse about danger.  It
+had remained then for him--Abdul Ali of Damascus and of El-Kerak
+--the same individual who was now urging them to strike for their
+own advantage--to take the first step for the establishment in
+El-Kerak of a school that should be independent of the British.
+He, Abdul Ali, greatly daring because he had the interest of El-
+Kerak at heart, had introduced that day into the mejlis a
+distinguished guest from the United States, whose sole desire--
+whose only object in life--whose altruistic and divine ambition
+was to establish an American secular school in El-Kerak!
+
+He sat down, glowing with super-virtue.  And then the fur flew.
+Anazeh was first on his feet.
+
+"Princes!" he shouted.  "That Damascene is a father of lies!  It
+was I, Anazeh, who brought this man hither!  That corrupter of
+honesty, who doles out other people's gold for bidden purposes,
+seeks to appear as your benefactor!"  (It was fairly obvious that
+Anazeh had not received any of the gold.)  "He will say next that
+it was he who set the stars in the sky over El-Kerak, and makes
+the moon rise!  He is a foreigner, a father of snakes, and a
+born liar!"
+
+Anazeh refused to sit down again, but stood with rifle on his
+arm, daring any one to challenge his statements.  Abdul Ali
+flushed angrily, but laughed aloud.  The next man on his feet was
+ben Nazir, my erstwhile host, who had repudiated me.  And he
+repudiated me all over again, accusing me of abusing his
+hospitality by going over to Abdul Ali, who had never even heard
+of me before I came to El-Kerak.
+
+There was no making head or tail of the storm of abuse and
+counter-abuse that followed, except that it did not look healthy
+for me.  There seemed to be four or five different factions, all
+of whom regarded me as the bone of contention.  Rather than
+betray anxiety I opened the Bible and began to make dots under
+letters, spelling out a message to Grim to the effect that I had
+no notion where to find lodgings for the night, and that if
+Anazeh elected to carry me off I should have to go with him.
+
+I did not know how to get the message to him without arousing
+suspicion and making matters worse than they were, and it seemed
+best not to call attention to the fact that I was writing.  So I
+made a few dots at a time, and looked about me.  I saw Abdul Ali,
+laughing cynically, make a gesture with his arm as if he
+consigned me to the dogs.  Then I caught Grim's eye--Suliman ben
+Saoud's.  He, too, was making capital of my predicament.
+
+He had got the attention of the men around him, and was pointing
+at the Bible while he reeled off a string of an angry rhetoric
+that sounded like a cat-fight.  He shouted at me, and made angry
+gestures;  but I knew that if he wanted me to understand his
+signals he would never make them openly, so I ignored them.
+
+"The sheikh from Arabia demands to see the book," said Mahommed
+ben Hamza in my ear.
+
+I passed it over the carpet with the pencil folded in it at the
+page I had begun to mark;  and the men opposite handed it along,
+with remarks they considered appropriate.  Jim Suliman ben Saoud
+Grim seized the book angrily, glared at it, denounced it, and
+wrote something on the fly-leaf.  He showed it to the men beside
+him, and they laughed, nodding approval.  He wrote again.  They
+approved again.  He turned and talked to them.  Then, as if he
+had an afterthought, he wrote a third time.  When they wanted to
+look at that he ran the pencil through it and wrote something
+else on the other side of the fly-leaf, at which they all
+laughed uproariously.  Presently he tossed the book back to me
+with all the outward signs of contempt that a fanatic can show
+for another religion.
+
+I have kept that Bible as a souvenir, with the verses from the
+Koran written on the flyleaf in Arabic in Grim's fine hand.
+Underneath them, in Greek characters with a pencil line scrawled
+through them, is the only sentence that interested me at the
+moment:
+
+"This looks good.  Keep Anazeh quiet and sober."
+
+Anazeh was beginning to hold forth again, shaking his fist
+at Abdul Ali and making the roof echo to his mighty bellowing.
+I tugged at the skirt of his cloak, and after a minute he
+sat down to discover what I wanted.  He seemed to think I
+needed reassurance.  He began to flood me with promises of
+protection.  It was about a minute before I could get a word
+in edgeways.  Then:
+
+"Jimgrim says," said I.
+
+"Jimgrim!  Is he here?"
+
+"He surely is."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"We have a sign. Jimgrim says, 'Be quiet, and drink no
+strong drink.'"
+
+He leaned across to Mahommed ben Hamza, doubting his ears and my
+Arabic.  I repeated the message, and ben Hamza translated.
+
+"I don't believe Jimgrim is here!" said Anazeh.  "I would know
+him among a million."
+
+"It is true," said ben Hamza, grinning from ear to ear, "for I
+myself know where he sits!"
+
+"Where then?" Anazeh demanded excitedly.
+
+"Don't you dare!" said I, and ben Hamza grinned again.
+
+"He is my friend.  I say nothing," he answered.
+
+Anazeh put in the next five minutes minutely examining every face
+within range, while the din of argument rose louder and more
+violent than ever, and suspicion of me seemed to be gaining.
+
+But suddenly Suliman ben Saoud got to his feet and there was
+silence.  They were all willing to listen to a member of the
+Ichwan sect, for the news of its power and political designs had
+spread wherever men talk Arabic.  He spoke gutturally in a
+dialect that ben Hamza did not find it any too easy to follow, so
+I only got the general gist of Grim's remarks.
+
+He said that he had much experience of raids and of making
+preparations for them.  A raid aimed at the Zionists--at this
+moment--might be good--perhaps.  They were better judges of that
+than he.  But it was all-important to know who was in favour of
+the raid, and exactly why.  The words men spoke were not nearly
+so impressive as the deeds they did.  Therefore, when the
+illustrious Sheikh Abdul Ali of Damascus urged a raid on the one
+hand, and boasted of provision for a school in El-Kerak on the
+other, it would be well to examine this foreign effendi,   whom
+Abdul Ali claimed to have introduced.  The claim was disputed,
+but the claim was not made for nothing.  In his judgment, based
+on vast experience of politics in Arabia, motives were seldom on
+the surface.  All depended on the motives of the illustrious
+Abdul Ali.  This stranger from America--he glared balefully at
+me--should be investigated thoroughly.  As a man of vast
+experience with the interests of El-Islam at heart, he offered
+respectfully to examine this stranger thoroughly with the aid of
+an interpreter.  He confessed to certain suspicions;  should they
+prove unfounded, then it might be reasonable to credit the rest
+of Abdul Ali's statements;  if not, no.  He was willing, if the
+honourable mejlis saw fit, to take the stranger aside and put
+many questions to him.
+
+When he had finished you could actually physically feel the
+suspicion directed at me.  It was like a cold wind.  Anazeh was
+just as conscious of it, and muttered something about its being
+time to go.  Abdul Ali got up and asked indignantly why the
+Ichwan from so far away should have such an important voice;  he
+himself stood there ready to answer all questions.  Suliman ben
+Saoud retorted sourly that he proposed to question the Damascene
+in public after privately interrogating me.
+
+"They shall not interfere with you!  You are in my charge,"
+Anazeh growled in my ear.  "I will summon my men at the
+first excuse."
+
+"Jimgrim says, 'Be quiet!'" I answered.
+
+There was another uproar.  Ali Shah al Khassib openly took the
+part of Abdul Ali.  A dozen men demanded to know how much he had
+been paid to do it.  Finally, Suliman ben Saoud beckoned me.  I
+got up, and with Mahommed ben Hamza at my heels I followed him to
+a narrow door in a side wall that opened on a stone stairway
+leading to the ramparts.  Anazeh' came too, growling like a
+hungry bear, and after a couple of blood-curdling threats hurled
+at Suliman ben Saoud's back he took up position in the open door,
+facing the crowd, and dared any one to try to follow.  He seemed
+to have confidence in Mahommed ben Hamza's ability to protect me,
+if necessary, on the roof.
+
+The roof and ramparts appeared deserted.  They were in the
+ruinous state to which the Turks reduce everything by sheer
+neglect, and in which Arabs, blaming the Turks, seemed quite
+disposed to leave things.  The Ichwan led the way to the
+southwest corner, peering about him to make sure no guards were
+in hiding, or asleep behind projecting buttresses.  Overhead the
+kites were wheeling against a pure blue sky.  The Dead Sea lay
+and smiled below us, with the gorgeous, treeless Judean Hills
+beyond.  Through the broken window of the hall came the clamour
+of arguing men.
+
+"O, Jimgrim!" grinned Mahommed ben Hamza when we reached
+the corner.
+
+Grim turned and faced us with folded arms, leaning his back
+against the parapet.
+
+Ben Hamza continued:  "You are a very prince of dare-devils!  One
+word from me--one little word, and they would fling you down into
+the moat for the vultures to feed on!"
+
+"I remember a time," Grim answered, "when a word from me saved
+you from hanging."
+
+"True, father of good fortune!  But a man must laugh.  I
+will hold my tongue in El-Kerak like a tomb that has not
+been plundered!"
+
+"You'd better!  You've work to do.  Where are your men?"
+
+"All where I can find them."
+
+"Good.  You'll get turned out of the mejlis presently.  Look down
+into the moat now."
+
+We all peered over.  The lower ramp of the wall sloped steeply,
+but all the way up the sharp southwest corner the stones were
+broken out, and a goat, or a very active man could find foothold.
+
+"Could you climb that?"
+
+"Surely.  Remember, Jimgrim, when I climbed the wall of El-Kudz
+(Jerusalem) to escape from the police!"
+
+"Bring your men into the moat between dark and moonrise.  Have a
+long rope with you--a good one.  You and two men climb up here
+and hide.  The remainder wait below.  Oh, yes;  and bring a wheat
+sack--a new, strong one.  You may have to wait for several hours.
+When you see me, take your cue from me;  but whatever happens, no
+murder!  You understand?  Nobody's to be killed."
+
+Ben Hamza grinned and nodded.  He seemed to be one of those good-
+natured rogues who ask nothing better than the sheer sport of
+lawless hero-worship.  He would have made a perfect chief of
+staff for any brigand, provided the brigand took lots of chances.
+
+"You'll be killed, if anybody finds you up here after dark!  You
+realize that?"
+
+"Trust me."
+
+Grim nodded.  He was good at trusting people, when he had to, and
+when the selection was his own.
+
+"Affairs seem to be drifting nicely," he said, turning to me.
+"It's best not to let Anazeh know who I am just yet, if that can
+be helped.  But if you must, when the time comes, you'll have to
+tell him.  Do keep him sober.  After the evening prayer there'll
+be a banquet;  if he gets drunk we're done for.  I'm going to
+make you out an awful leper, if you don't mind.  They may yell
+for your hide and feathers before I've finished, but Anazeh will
+protect you.  If he leaves the hall in a huff, don't make any
+bones about going with him.  Let him ride out of town and wait
+for me about two miles down the track, at the point where that
+tomb stands above a narrow pass between two big rocks.  Do you
+remember it?"
+
+"What if he won't wait?"
+
+"He must!  Tell him I'll have a prisoner with me;  then he'll be
+curious.  But you can bet on old Anazeh when he's sober.  But
+things may turn out so that it's simpler for you to stay and see
+this through with me.  In that case you must persuade him to go
+without you, after explaining to him just where he's to wait."
+
+"How shall I do that?" I said. "I haven't enough Arabic."
+
+"I'll write it," he answered.  "Give me that pencil."
+
+"Say something, too, then about his keeping sober."
+
+Grim nodded, and wrote quite a long letter in Arabic on a page of
+my notebook.
+
+"The next move," he said, as I pocketed the letter, "is for me to
+get Abdul Ali's goat:  I think--and I hope--he'll try to bribe
+me.  If he does, he's my meat!  The whole question of raid or no
+raid hangs on their confidence in him.  If I throw suspicion on
+him, and he disappears directly afterwards, they'll abandon the
+plan, confiscate his goods and chattels, and quarrel among
+themselves instead of raiding Palestine.  Get me?"
+
+"Um-n-yes.  I've sat on a horse I was warned against--felt
+safer--and gone to hospital at that."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"No hospitals up here!  It'll be soon over if they get wise to
+us.  But I think we're all right;  and you're almost certainly
+safe.  But don't be tempted to talk.  Well--we've been up here
+long enough for me to have put you through the third degree.
+Better look a bit uncomfortable as you go down, as if I'd got
+under your skin with some awkward questions.  You, too, ben
+Hamza;  don't grin;  look afraid."
+
+"I am not at all afraid, Jimgrim.  But I will try."
+
+Grim studied for a moment.
+
+"Don't forget," he added, "at the first suggestion that you're
+not wanted, make yourself scarce, and go and round up your men.
+If you're thrown out pretty roughly, keep your temper and run."
+
+"Taht il-amr!" (Yours to command.)
+
+"Come on, then.  Let's go."
+
+The sun was fairly low over the Judean Hills as we turned down
+the narrow stairs and found Anazeh waiting at the bottom.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Nine
+
+"Feet downwards, too afraid to yell!"--
+
+
+Abdul Ali of Damascus was holding the floor again when we
+returned.  He had abandoned the cold air of mysterious authority
+and secrets in reserve.  His claim to backstairs influence having
+been challenged, he had resorted to the emotional appeal that is
+the simplest means of controlling any crowd of men anywhere.  The
+demagog who can find a million men all responsive to the same
+emotion can swing them as easily as a hundred if he knows his
+business.  Loot was the tune he harped, with the old Ishmael
+blood-lust by way of obbligato.
+
+He had them by the heart-strings, and there were long-necked
+bottles of liquor that smelt of aniseed being passed from hand to
+hand.  We returned to our places almost unnoticed, and within the
+minute some one handed a full bottle to Anazeh;  the accompanying
+cup was big enough to hold any ordinary drunkard's breakfast, and
+the old sheikh's eyes admired the size of it.
+
+I laid my hand on the wrist that held the bottle.  He shook it
+off angrily, and began to pour.  Grim, over the way, looked
+anxious.  It was up to me to play this hand, so I led my ace
+of trumps.
+
+Suddenly, and very clumsily, I rocked sideways to reach my hip-
+pocket, contriving to jog his elbow and spill what was already in
+the cup.  He turned his head to curse savagely, and I showed him
+the folded sheet from my notebook.  His name was on it in Arabic:
+
+"Sheikh Anazeh ben Mahmoud, from Jimgrim."
+
+He seized it, setting the bottle down between his feet, where it
+was instantly reached for by some one else and handed down the
+line.  Reading was evidently not Anazeh's favorite amusement, but
+he knitted his brows over the letter and wrestled with it word by
+word, while Abdul Ali's fiery declamation made the vaulted roof
+resound.  I could only make out snatches of the appeal to
+savagery--a word and a sentence here and there.
+
+"Who are you, princes?  Men with swords, or slaves who must
+obey?--Raid over the Jordan twenty thousand strong!--What are
+Jews?  Shall Jews take the home of your ancestors?  Who says so?
+--Let the Jews be buried in the land they come to steal!--You say
+the Jews are cleverer than you.  Cut their heads off, then they
+cannot think!"
+
+"When did Jimgrim give you this?" Anazeh demanded, folding the
+letter and stowing it in his bosom.
+
+"That is the message that I told you would come later if
+you waited."
+
+"Do you know what is in the message?"
+
+"No."  That was perfectly true.  I had talked with Grim, but had
+not read what he had written.
+
+"He wishes me to go and wait for him in a certain place"
+
+"Why not do it?"
+
+"Rubbama." (Perhaps.)
+
+"True-believers!  Followers of the Prophet!  Sons of warrior
+kings!" thundered Abdul Ali.  "Will you do nothing to help
+Feisul, a lineal descendant of the Prophet?  You have helped him
+to a throne.  Now strike to hold him there!"
+
+"Jimgrim says, I may go away and leave you here," growled Anazeh.
+"What say you?"
+
+"Ala khatrak. (Please yourself.)  Jimgrim is wise."
+
+"He is the father of wisdom.  Mashallah!  I will consider it.
+There will be a banquet presently!"
+
+"And loot!  You can help yourselves!" shouted Abdul Ali of
+Damascus.  Then he sat down amid a storm of applause.  Suliman
+ben Saoud--Jimgrim--was on his feet before the tumult died away,
+and again they grew perfectly still to listen to him.  If an
+Arab loves anything under heaven more than his own style of
+fighting, it is the action and reaction of debate.  I could
+not understand a word of the mid-Arabian dialect, but Abdul
+Ali's retorts were plain enough;  and from the way that Grim
+pointed at me and Mahommed ben Hamza it was fairly easy to
+follow what was happening.
+
+He denounced me as possibly dangerous, and wondered why they
+permitted me to have an interpreter, who could whisper to me
+everything that was being said.
+
+"Put out the interpreter!" sneered Abdul Ali, and there was a
+chorus of approval.   Mahommed ben Hamza got up and hurried for
+the door while the hurrying was good and painless to himself,
+though it was hardly that to other people;  forcing his way
+between the close-packed notables he kicked more than one of them
+pretty badly and grinned when they cursed him.  I saw Abdul Ali
+of Damascus whisper to one of his rose-coloured parasites, who
+got up at once and made his way toward the door, too.
+
+"The fellow is from Hebron," Abdul Ali sneered in a voice loud
+enough for all to hear.  "It is best that he should not go back
+to Hebron to tell tales!  I have attended to it."
+
+My blood ran cold.  I tried to catch Grim's eye, but he would not
+look in my direction.  I wondered whether he had heard Abdul
+Ali's threat.  It seemed to me that if Mahommed ben Hamza were
+either murdered or imprisoned Grim's whole chance of success was
+gone.  The danger would be multiplied tenfold.  Anazeh seemed the
+only remaining hope.  The old-rose individual who followed ben
+Hamza had not reached the door yet.
+
+"How about your men?" I asked.
+
+"They are all right." Anazeh's eyes pursued the liquor bottle.
+
+"Why not go and see?" I suggested.
+
+"Ilhamdul'illah, they are good men.  I know them.  If there is
+trouble they will come and tell me."
+
+The door opened softly.  The gorgeous old-rose parasite slipped
+through.  I had a mental vision of Mahommed ben Hamza lying face-
+downward with his new coat stained with blood.  There was nothing
+for it, it seemed, but the magic formula to move Anazeh.
+
+"Jimgrim says, 'See that ben Hamza gets safely away!"'
+
+"Dog of a Hebron tanner's son--let him die!  What is that to me?"
+
+"It is Jimgrim's command."
+
+"Wallahi haida fasl! (By God, this is a strange affair!)  Wait
+here!"
+
+Old Anazeh, with the name of the Prophet of God on his lips, cast
+an envious glare at the bottle of liquor and seized action by the
+forelock.  There was nothing to excite comment in his getting up
+to leave the room.  A dozen men had done that and come in again.
+He strode out, straight down the middle of the carpet.  Suliman
+ben Saoud--Jimgrim--went on talking, and to judge by Abdul Ali of
+Damascus' increasingly restless retorts he was getting that
+gentleman's goat as promised.  Finally Abdul Ali got to his feet
+and said that if the Ichwan would see him alone he would show him
+certain documents that would satisfy him, but that it would not
+be policy to produce them in public.  He offered to send for the
+documents, and to show them during or after the banquet.
+
+So Jimgrim sat down, and there was a good deal of quiet nudging
+and nodding.  Every one seemed to understand that the Ichwan was
+going to be bribed;  they seemed to admire his ability to get for
+himself a share of the funds that most of them had tapped.
+
+A man nearly opposite me leaned over and said in fairly good
+French, with the manner of a doctor assuring his patient that the
+worst is yet to come:
+
+"It has been decided that you are to be detained here in the castle
+until there is no danger of your carrying away important news."
+
+While I was turning that over in my mind Anazeh came back,
+grinning.  Something outside had tickled him immensely, but he
+would not say anything.  He sat down beside me and chuckled into
+his beard;  and when his neighbour on the right asked what had
+amused him he turned the question into a bawdy joke.
+
+"Did ben Hamza get away?" I whispered.
+
+He only nodded.  He continued chuckling until the man on duty by
+the door announced to the "assembled lords and princes" that the
+muezzin summoned them to prayer.  All except three Christian
+sheikhs trooped up the narrow stairway in Ali Shah al Khassib's
+wake, Anazeh going last with a half-serious joke about not caring
+to be stabbed in the back.
+
+I expected the three non-Moslems would take advantage of the
+opportunity to ask me a string of questions.  But they took
+exactly the opposite view of the situation.  They avoided me,
+withdrawing into a corner by themselves.  I suppose they
+thought that to be seen talking to me was more risky than the
+amusement merited.
+
+So I went up to the ramparts, too, to watch the folk at prayer,
+minded to keep out of sight, for they don't like being regarded
+as a curious spectacle;  and on the way up I did something that
+may have had a lot to do with our getting away alive, although I
+did not give much thought to it and could hardly have explained
+my motive at the time.
+
+The door at the foot of the stairs opened inward.  It was almost
+exactly the same width as the stairway, so that when it stood
+wide open you could not have put your hand between its edge and
+the stairway wall.  Lying on the floor of the hall within a few
+feet of the nearest corner was a length of good sound olive-wood,
+about three inches in thickness, roughly squared and not
+particularly squared.  Having stepped on it accidentally, I
+picked it up, and discovered more by accident than intention that
+it was longer than the width of the stairway.  Then I noticed a
+notch in the stairway wall.  Behind the opened door there was a
+deeper notch in the opposite wall.  There was no lock on the
+door, no bolt.  That length of wood had been cut to fit
+horizontally from notch to notch across the passage.  Once that
+beam was fitted in its place, whoever wished to reach the roof
+would have to burn or batter down the door.  I moved the door and
+placed the length of olive-wood on end behind it.
+
+I found the view from the ramparts much more interesting than the
+soul-saving formalities of eighty or so potential cut-throats.
+While they prayed I stood watching the shadows deepen in the
+Jordan Valley, as no doubt Joshua once watched them from
+somewhere near that same spot before he marshalled his invading
+host.  You could understand why people who had wandered forty
+years in a stark and howling wilderness should yearn for those
+coloured, fertile acres between the Jordan and the sea:  why they
+should be willing to fight for them, die for them, do anything
+rather than turn back.
+
+By the time we had filed down--Anazeh last again--the servants
+had nearly finished spreading a banquet.  What looked like bed-
+sheets had been laid along the strip of carpet, and, the whole
+length of them was piled with all imaginable things to eat, from
+cakes and fruit to whole sheep roasted and seethed in camel's
+milk and honey.  There were no less than six sheep placed at
+intervals along the "table," with mountains of rice, scow-loads
+of apricots cooked in various ways, and a good sized flock of
+chickens spitted and smeared with peppery sauce.  At a guess, I
+should say there were several pounds of meat, about two chickens,
+and a peck of rice per man, with apricots and raisins added;  but
+they faced the prospect like heroes.
+
+Perhaps what helped them face it was the sight of sundry bottles
+bearing labels more familiar in the West.  Abdul Ali of Damascus,
+licking his lips like a cat that smells canary, took his place on
+a cushion up near the window again on the right of Ali Shah al
+Khassib, who was only the nominal host.  Abdul Ali left no doubt
+in anybody's mind as to who was paying for the feast.  It was he
+who gave orders to the servants in a bullying tone of voice;  he
+who begged every one be seated.
+
+Anazeh looked at the bottles of brandy--looked at me--and prayed
+under his breath;  or, at any rate, it looked and sounded like a
+prayer.  He may have been swearing.  He and I were not very far
+from the door;  the seats near the head of the table had all been
+taken.  I sat down at once, so as not to be conspicuous, but
+Anazeh remained standing so long that at last Abdul Ali called to
+him to sit down and eat his fill, using the offensively
+magnanimous tone of voice that some men can achieve without an
+effort.  I think Anazeh had been waiting for just that opening.
+
+"I have twenty men outside," he announced.  "Shall I eat, and
+not they?"
+
+"This is a feast for notables," said Abdul Ali.
+
+"A little bread with my own men is better than meat and drink at
+a traitor's table," Anazeh answered. "Wallahi! (By God!)  I go to
+eat with honest men!"  He laid a hand on my head.  "Ye have said
+this effendi must stay in the castle.  Well and good.  Whoever
+harms him or offers him indignity shall answer to me and my men
+for it!"  He bowed to me like a king taking leave of his court.
+"Lailtak sa'idi.  Allah yifazak, effendi!" (Good night. God keep
+you, effendi!)  With that he stalked out, and the door slammed
+shut behind him.  Everybody, including Abdul Ali, laughed.
+
+The banquet was a boresome business--an interminable competition
+to see who could eat and drink the most.  With my interpreter
+gone, and everybody else too busy guzzling to trouble to speak
+distinctly for my benefit, I had to depend on my ayes for
+information and naturally used them to the utmost.  I noticed
+that Abdul All of Damascus, Jimgrim Suliman ben Saoud and myself
+were the only men in the room, servants included, who ate and
+drank within the bounds of decency and reason.  One of the
+servants, walking up and down the table-cloth with brandy and
+relays of vegetables, was drunk very early in the game and had to
+be thrown out.
+
+Abdul Ali kept conversation going on the subject of the raid.
+The more the brandy bottles circulated the easier he found it to
+keep enthusiasm burning.  He talked about me, too, several times,
+and every time that subject cropped up all eyes turned in my
+direction.  I think he was making the most of the school idea,
+mixing up the raid with education and serving the mixture hot, as
+it were, with brandy sauce.
+
+But over the way, about half-way down the table, the Ichwan
+Suliman ben Saoud, dead-cold-sober and abstemious, as befitted a
+fanatic, was talking, too.  He was quite evidently talking
+against Abdul Ali, so that the Damascene kept looking at him with
+a troubled expression.  He glanced frequently at the door, too,
+as if he expected some one who could put an end to Suliman ben
+Saoud's intrigue.
+
+But it was a long time before the door opened and the second of
+his old-rose parasites came in.  I had not noticed until then
+that the man was missing.  He thrust a packet of some sort into
+Abdul Ali's hands.  He whispered.  The Damascene's face darkened
+instantly, and he swore like a pirate.  Then, I suppose because
+he had to vent his wrath on somebody, he shouted to me in German
+all down the length of the table:
+
+"Your cursed interpreter has nearly killed my secretary!  He
+struck him in the mouth and knocked all his teeth out.  What
+courteous servants you employ!"
+
+"What was your secretary trying to do to him?" I retorted, but he
+saw fit not to answer that.  He poured some more brandy instead
+for Ali Shah al Khassib.
+
+So that was what Anazeh had been laughing at!  The old humourist
+had either seen the fracas, or had come on the injured old-rose
+messenger of death nursing a damaged face.  I began to share
+Grim's good opinion of ben Hamza.  But though I watched Grim's
+face, and knew that he knew German, I could not detect a trace of
+interest.  He kept on talking against Abdul Ali until after ten
+o'clock.  By that time most of the notables were about as full as
+they could hold.  Those who were not too drunk appeared ready for
+anything in or out of reason.
+
+At that stage of the proceedings they ushered in the dancing
+girls.  The servants cleared away most of the food, removed the
+table-cloths, and a ring was formed practically all around the
+room, the notables leaning their backs against the wall to ease
+overworked bellies.  I set my cushion down next to a very drunken
+man just by the narrow door that opened on the stairway leading
+to the ramparts.  He fell asleep with his head on my shoulder
+within five minutes, and as that, for some subtle reason, seemed
+to make me even more unnoticeable I let him snore away in peace.
+
+Over in Abdul Ali's corner of the room there was a real council
+of war going on in whispers.  Opposite to him, ten paces or so
+distant from me, Jimgrim Suliman ben Saoud was holding a rival
+show.  It seemed about an even bet which was making greater
+headway.  Those who were more or less drunk, and all the younger
+sheikhs had eyes and ears for nothing but the dancing girls.
+
+They were outrageous hussies.  They wore more clothes than a
+Broadway chorus lady, and rather less paint, but if they were
+symbols of the Moslem paradise (as a learned Arab once assured me
+that they are meant to be) then, as I answered the Arab on that
+occasion, "me for hell."  But none of those sheikhs had ever seen
+Broadway, so you could hardly blame them.
+
+Abdul Ali of Damascus seemed to have his arrangements with the
+men in his corner cinched at last to his satisfaction.  He walked
+a little unsteadily across the room, apparently to make his peace
+with Suliman ben Saoud.  He held brazenly in one hand a leather
+wallet that bulged with paper money--doubtless the "documents"
+that he had sent for.  He nodded to me as he passed with
+more familiarity than he had any right to, since he had so
+ostentatiously dismissed me to the dogs.  I suppose he felt so
+sure of "convincing" Suliman ben Saoud, and was so bent on
+offsetting the reaction caused by Anazeh's behavior that he had
+been reviving that project about the school and therefore chose
+to appear on intimate terms with me.  I met him more than
+half-way;  any one who cared to might believe I loved him like
+a brother.
+
+He stood in front of Suliman ben Saoud, rocking just a trifle
+from the effects of alcohol and smoke,  and there was about five
+minutes' conversation of which, although I missed a lot of it, I
+caught the general drift.  The men who had come under the
+Ichwan's influence kept joining in and raising objections.  I
+gathered that they expected a proportionate percentage of the
+bribe for which Suliman ben Saoud was supposed to be maneuvering.
+
+But even Abdul Ali, with a pouch of paper money in his hand, was
+not quite so barefaced as to bribe the Ichwan publicly.  At the
+end of five minutes he suggested a private talk on the parapet.
+Suliman ben Saoud rose with apparent reluctance.  Abdul Ali of
+Damascus took his arm.  It was Suliman ben Saoud who opened the
+narrow door, and Abdul Ali who went through first.  I did not
+wait for any invitation, but let my snoring neighbor fall on his
+side, hurried through after them, and closed the door behind me.
+Groping for the stick in the dark, I jammed it into the notches.
+It fitted perfectly.  It held the door immovable and barred
+that stairway against all-comers.  Then I followed them to
+the parapet.
+
+The moon was about full and bathing the whole roof, and all the
+countryside in liquid light.  There was a certain amount of mist
+lower down, and you could only make out the Dead Sea through it
+here and there;  but up where we were, and even in the moat
+eighty feet below us, it was almost like daylight without the
+glare and heat.  I leaned over, but could see nobody in the moat,
+and there was no sign of Mahommed ben Hamza.
+
+Abdul Ali led the way toward the corner where Grim had given his
+orders to ben Hamza that afternoon.  Abdul Ali did not seem to
+realize that I was following.  When he turned at last, with his
+back to the parapet and the moonlight full in his face, he
+demanded in German:
+
+"Wass machen Sie hier?"
+
+I was about to answer him when there came a noise like
+subterranean thunder from the mouth of the stairway.  They were
+trying to force that door below and follow us.  The first words I
+used were in English, for Grim's benefit:
+
+"I stuck a stick in the door.  I should say it's good for ten or
+fifteen minutes unless they use explosives."
+
+That gave the whole game away at once.
+
+"So!" said Abdul Ali.  He thrust the wallet into his bosom.  With
+the other hand he pulled out a repeating pistol.  "So!"
+
+Grim said never a word.  He closed with him.  In a second we were
+all three struggling like madmen.  The pistol was not cocked;  I
+managed to get hold of Abdul Ali's wrist and wrench the weapon
+away before he could pull back the slide.  Then we all three went
+down together on the stone roof, Abdul Ali yelling like a maniac,
+and Grim trying to squeeze the wind out of him.  Even then, as we
+rolled and fought, I could still hear the thundering on the door.
+No doubt the noise they made prevented them from hearing Abdul
+Ali's yells for help.
+
+The man's strength was prodigious, although he was puffy and
+short-winded.  It began to look as if we would have to knock him
+on the head to get control of him.  But even so, there was no
+rope--no sign of Mahommed ben Hamza and his men.  You can think
+of a lot of things while you fight for your life eighty miles
+away from help.  I wondered whether Grim would throw him over the
+parapet, and whether we two would have to take our chance of
+mountaineering down that ragged corner of the wall.
+
+But suddenly about a hundred and eighty pounds of human brawn
+landed feet-first on my back.  A voice said "Taib,* Jimgrim!" and
+two other men jumped after him from somewhere on the ruined wall
+above us.  In another second Abdul Ali was held hand and foot,
+tied until he could not move, and then a wheat-sack was pulled
+down over his head and made fast between his legs. [*All right.]
+
+"You're late!" said Grim.  "Quick!  Where's the rope?  Are your
+men below?"
+
+The thundering on the door had ceased.  Either they were coming
+up the steps already, or had gone to reach the parapet some other
+way.  It did not occur to me, or for that matter to any of us in
+the excitement of the minute, that they might be holding a
+consultation below, or might even have abandoned the idea of
+following, although I think now that must be the explanation, for
+what we did took more time than it takes to set it down.
+
+Ben Hamza made one end of the rope fast around Abdul Ali's feet.
+He would not listen to argument.  He said he knew his business,
+and certainly the knot was workmanlike.  Then he called over the
+parapet (an Arab never whistles) and a voice answered from the
+southern side of the moat, where some fallen stones cast a
+shadow.  Then the three of them lifted Abdul Ali over, and
+lowered him head-first.
+
+It was a slow business, for otherwise he would have been stunned
+against the first projection.  I thought that Grim looked almost
+as nervous as I felt, but Mahommed ben Hamza was having the time
+of his life, and could not keep his tongue still.
+
+"Head upwards a man can yell," he explained to me, grinning from
+ear to ear.  "Feet upwards, too afraid to yell!"  Then the
+thundering on the door began again, louder than before it seemed
+to me.  They were using a battering-ram.  But they were too late.
+After what seemed like a long-drawn hour we saw shadowy arms
+below reach up and seize our prisoner.  Then the loose rope came
+up again hand over hand.
+
+"You next!" said Grim quietly.  He pushed me forward, after
+carefully examining the loop Mahommed ben Hamza tied in the end
+of the rope.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Ten
+
+"Money doesn't weigh much!"
+
+
+Well--you don't stand on precedence or ceremony at times like
+that.  Over I went in the bight of the rope.  They let me fall
+about fifteen feet before they seemed to realize that I had let
+go of the parapet.  Added to all that had gone before, that made
+about the climax of sensation.  The pain of barking the skin of
+knees and elbows against projecting angles of stone was a relief.
+
+I am no man of iron.  I haven't iron nerves.  Not one second of
+that descent was less than hell.  I could hear the thunder of
+some kind of battering-ram on the door at the foot of the stair.
+I could imagine the rope chafing against the sharp edge of the
+parapet as they paid it out hand over hand.  The only thing that
+made me keep my head at all was knowledge that Abdul Ali had had
+to do the trip feet-upward, with his head in a bag.  When they
+let go too fast it was rather like the half-way stage of taking
+chloroform.  When they slowed up, there was the agonizing dread
+of pursuit.  And through it all there burned the torturing
+suggestion that the rope might break.
+
+Mother Earth felt good that night, when strong hands reached up
+and lifted me out of the noose that failed of reaching the bottom
+by about a man's height.  Come to think of it, it wasn't mother
+earth at that.  It was the stinking carcass of a camel only half
+autopsied by the vultures, that my feet first rested on--brother,
+perhaps, to the beast I had put out of his agony that afternoon.
+
+The others came down the rope hand-over-hand, Grim last.  I
+suppose he stayed up there with his pistol, ready for contingencies.
+He had his nerve with him, for he had fastened the upper end of
+the rope to a piece of broken stone laid across a gap that the
+crusaders had made in the ramparts, centuries ago, for the Christian
+purpose of pouring boiling oil and water on their foes.  It did not
+take more than a minute's violent shaking after he got down to bring
+the rope tumbling on our heads.
+
+Then the next thing he did was to take a look at the prisoner.
+Finding him not much the worse for wear, barring some bruises and
+a missing inch or two of skin, he ordered the bag pulled over his
+head again and gave the order for retreat.  Mahommed ben Hamza
+went scouting ahead.  The others picked up Abdul Ali as the
+construction gangs handle baulks of timber--horizontal--face-
+downward.  When he wriggled they cuffed him into good behaviour.
+
+You have to get down into an Arab moat before you can realize
+what the Hebrews meant by their word Gehenna.  The smell of
+rotting carrion was only part of it.  One stumbled into, and
+through, and over things that should not be.  Heaps, that looked
+solid in the moonlight, yielded to the tread.  Whatever liquid
+lay there was the product of corruption.
+
+Yet we did not dare to climb out of the moat until we reached the
+shadows at the northern angle.  Though the moonlight shone almost
+straight down on us it was a great deal brighter up above, and
+the walls cast some shadow.  There was nothing for it but to pick
+our way in the comparative gloom of that vulture's paradise,
+praying we might find a stream to wade in presently.
+
+Once, looking up behind me, I thought I saw men's heads peering
+over the parapet, but that may have been imagination.  Grim vowed
+he did not see them, although I suspected him of saying that to
+avoid a panic.  He shepherded us along, speaking in a perfectly
+normal voice whenever he had to, as if there were no such thing
+as hurry in the world.  When we reached the farther corner of the
+moat it was he who climbed out first to con the situation.  A
+look-out in a bastion on the ruined town wall promptly fired
+at him.
+
+I expected him to fire back.  I climbed up beside him to lend a
+hand with the pistol I had filched from Abdul Ali.  But Grim
+shouted something about taking away for burial the corpse of a
+man who had died of small-pox.  The man on the wall commanded us
+to Allah's mercy and warned us to beware lest we, too, catch that
+dreaded plague.
+
+"Inshallah!" Grim answered.  Then he summoned our men from
+the moat.
+
+They passed up Abdul Ali, dragging him feet-first again with one
+man keeping a clenched fist ready to strike him in the mouth in
+case he should forget that corpses don't cry out.  He looked like
+a corpse half-cold, as they carried him jerkily along a track
+that roughly followed the line of the wall.  I don't suppose that
+anything ever looked more like an Arab funeral procession than we
+did.  The absence of noisy mourners, and the unusual hour of
+night, were plausibly accounted for by the dreaded disease that
+Grim had invented for the occasion.  My golf-suit was the only
+false note, but I kept in shadow as much as I could, with the
+unseemly burden between me and the ramparts.
+
+It was a long time before we had the town wall at our backs.  A
+funeral, in the circumstances, might justifiably be rapid;  but
+we could hardly run and keep up the pretense.  But at last we
+passed over the shoulder of a hill into shadow on the farther
+side, and there was no more need of play-acting.
+
+"Yalla bilagel!" [Run like the devil.] Grim ordered then, and we
+obeyed him like sprinters attempting to lower a record.
+
+Twelve men running through the night can make a lot of noise,
+especially when they carry a heavy man between them.  Our men
+were all from Hebron.  Hebron prides itself on training the
+artfullest thieves in Asia.  They boast of being able to steal
+the bed from under a sleeper without waking him.  But even the
+stealthiest animals go crashing away from danger, and, now that
+the worst of the danger lay behind, more or less panic seized all
+of us.
+
+Mahommed ben Hamza refused to follow the regular track, for fear
+of ambush or a chance encounter in the dark.  Grim let him have
+his way.  They dragged the wretched Abdul Ali like a sack of corn
+by a winding detour, and wherever the narrow path turned sharply
+to avoid great rocks they skidded him at the turn until he yelled
+for mercy.  Grim pulled off the sack at last, untied his arms and
+legs, and let him walk;  but whenever he lagged they frog-marched
+him again.
+
+At last we reached a brook where we all waded to get rid of the
+filth and smell from that infernal moat, and Abdul Ali seized
+that opportunity to play his last cards.  Considering Ben Hamza's
+reputation, the obvious type of his nine ruffians, the darkness
+and rough handling, it said a lot for Grim's authority that Abdul
+Ali still had that wallet-full of money in his possession.
+Sitting on a stone in the moonlight, he pulled it out.  His nerve
+was a politician's, cynical, simple.  Its simplicity almost took
+your breath away.
+
+"How many men from Hebron?" he demanded.
+
+"Ten.  Well and good.  I have here ten thousand piastres--one
+thousand for each of you, or divide it how you like.  That is
+the price I will pay you to let me go.  What can these other
+two do to you?  Take the money and run.  Leave me to settle with
+these others."
+
+Ben Hamza, knee-deep in the brook, laughed aloud as he eyed the
+money.  He made a gesture so good-humoured, so full of
+resignation and regret and broad philosophy that you would have
+liked the fellow even if he hadn't saved your life.
+
+"Deal with those two first!" he grinned.  "I would have taken
+your money long ago, but that I know Jimgrim!  He would have made
+me give it up again."
+
+"Jimgrim!" said Abdul Ali.  "Jimgrim?  Are you Major James Grim?
+A good thing for you I did not know that, when I had you in my
+power in the castle!"
+
+Grim laughed.  "Are we all set? Let's go."
+
+We hurried all the faster now because our legs were wet.  The
+night air on those Moab heights is chilly at any season.
+Perhaps, too, we were trying to leave behind us the moat-stench
+that the water had merely reduced, not washed away.  A quarter of
+a mile before we reached the place appointed we knew that Anazeh
+had not failed to keep his tryst.  Away up above us, beside the
+tomb, like an ancient bearded ghost, Anazeh stood motionless,
+silent, conning the track we should come by--a grand old savage
+keeping faith against his neighbours for the sake of friendship.
+
+He did not challenge when he heard us.  He took aim.  He held his
+aim until Grim called to him.  When our goat track joined the
+main road he was there awaiting us, standing like a sentinel in
+the shadow of a fanged rock.  And there, if, Abdul Ali of
+Damascus could have had his way, there would have been a fresh
+debate.  He did not let ten seconds pass before he had offered
+Anazeh all the money he had with him to lend him a horse and let
+him go.  Anazeh waived aside the offer.
+
+"You shall have as much more money as you wish!" the Damascene
+insisted.  "Let me get to my house, and a messenger shall take
+the money to you.  Or come and get it."
+
+All the answer Anazeh gave him was a curt laugh--one bark like
+a Fox's.
+
+"Where are all the horses?" Grim demanded.  I could only see five
+of six.
+
+"I wait for them."
+
+"Man, we can't wait!"
+
+"Jimgrim!" said the old sheikh, with a glint of something between
+malice and amusement in his eyes, "I knew you in the mejlis when
+you watched me read that letter!  One word from me and--"  He
+made a click between his teeth suggestive of swift death.  "I let
+you play your game.  But now I play my game, Allah willing.  I
+have waited for you.  Wait thou for me!"
+
+"Why?  What is it?"
+
+Anazeh beckoned us and turned away.  We followed him, Grim and I,
+across the road and up a steep track to the tomb on the
+overhanging rock, where he had stood when we first saw him.
+
+He pointed.  A cherry-red fire with golden sparks and crimson-
+bellied sulphur smoke was blazing in the midst of El-Kerak.
+
+"The home of Abdul Ali of Damascus," said Anazeh with pride in
+his voice.  It was the pride of a man who shows off the behaviour
+of his children.  "My men did it!"
+
+"How can they escape?" Grim asked him.
+
+"Wallah!  Will the gate guards stand idle?  Will they not run to
+the fire--and to the looting?  But they will find not much loot.
+My men already have it!"
+
+"Loot," said Grim, "will delay them."
+
+"Money doesn't weigh much," Anazeh answered.  "Here my men come."
+
+Somebody was coming.  There came a burst of shooting and yelling
+from somewhere between us and El-Kerak, and a moment later the
+thunder of horses galloping full-pelt.  Anazeh got down to the
+road with the agility of a youngster, ordered Abdul Ali of
+Damascus, the shivering Ahmed and me under cover.  He placed his
+remaining handful of men at points of vantage where they could
+cover the retreat of the fifteen.  And it was well he did.
+
+There were at least two score in hot pursuit, and though you
+could hardly tell which was which in that dim light, Anazeh's
+party opened fire on the pursuers and let the fifteen through.  I
+did not get sight of Grim while that excitement lasted, but he
+had two automatics.  He took from me the one that I had taken
+from Abdul Ali, and with that one and his own he made a din
+like a machine-gun.  He told me afterward that he had fired in
+the air.
+
+"Noise is as good as knock-outs in the dark," he explained, while
+Anazeh's men boasted to one another of the straight shooting that
+it may be they really believed they had done.  An Arab can
+believe anything--afterward.  I don't believe one man was killed,
+though several were hit.
+
+At any rate, whether the noise accomplished it or not, the
+pursuers drew off, and we went forward, carrying a cashbox now,
+of which Abdul Ali was politely requested to produce the key.
+That was the first intimation he had that his house had been
+looted.  He threw his bunch of keys away into the shadows, in the
+first exhibition of real weakness he had shown that night.  It
+was a silly gesture.  It only angered his captors.  It saved him
+nothing.
+
+Four more of Anazeh's men had been wounded, all from behind, two
+of them rather badly, making six in all who were now unfit for
+further action.  But we did not wait to bandage them.  They
+affected to make light of their injuries, saying they would go
+over to the British and get attended to in hospital.  Abdul Ali
+was put on Ahmed's miserable mount, with his legs lashed under
+the horse's belly.  Ahmed, with Mahommed ben Hamza and his men
+were sent along ahead;  being unarmed, unmounted, they were a
+liability now.  But those Hebron thieves could talk like an
+army;  they put up a prodigious bleat, all night long, about
+that cash-box.  They maintained they had a clear right to share
+its contents, since unless they had first captured Abdul Ali,
+Anazeh's men could not have burned his house and seized
+his money.  Anazeh's men, when they had time to be, were
+suitably amused.
+
+It was not a peaceful retreat by any means.  Time and again
+before morning we were fired on from the rear.  Our party
+deployed to right and left to answer--always boasting afterward
+of having killed at least a dozen men.  I added up their figures
+on the fly-leaf of the pocket Bible, and the total came to two
+hundred and eighteen of the enemy shot dead and forever damned!
+I believe Anazeh actually did kill one of our pursuers.
+
+By the time the moon disappeared we had come too close to
+Anazeh's country to make pursuit particularly safe.  Who they
+were who pursued us, hauled off.  We reached the launch, secure
+in its cove between the rocks, a few minutes after dawn.  Anazeh
+ordered his six wounded men into it, with perfect assurance
+that the British doctors would take care of them and let them
+go unquestioned.
+
+When Grim had finished talking with Anazeh I went up to thank the
+old fellow for my escort, and he acknowledged the courtesy with a
+bow that would have graced the court of Solomon.
+
+"Give the old bird a present, if you've got one," Grim whispered.
+
+So I gave him my watch and chain, and he accepted them with the
+same calm dignity.
+
+"Now he's your friend for life!" said Grim.  "Anazeh is a friend
+worth having.  Let's go!"
+
+The watch and chain was a cheap enough price to pay for that two
+days' entertainment and the acquaintance of such a splendid old
+king of thieves.  Anazeh watched us away until we were out of
+earshot, he and Grim exchanging the interminable Arab farewell
+formula of blessing and reply that have been in use unchanged for
+a thousand years.
+
+Then Abdul Ali produced his wallet again.
+
+"Major Grim," he said, "please take this money.  Keep it for
+yourself, and let me go.  Surely I have been punished enough!
+Besides, you cannot--you dare not imprison me!  I am a French
+subject.  I have been seized outside the British sphere.  I know
+you are a poor man--the pay of a British officer is a matter of
+common knowledge.  Come now, you have done what you came to do.
+You have destroyed my influence at El-Kerak.  Now benefit
+yourself.  Avoid an international complication.  Show mercy on
+me!  Take this money.  Say that I gave you the slip in the dark!"
+
+Grim smiled.  He looked extremely comical without any eyebrows.
+The wrinkles went all the way up to the roots of his hair.
+
+"I'm incorruptible," he said.  "The boss, I believe, isn't."
+
+"You mean your High Commissioner?  I have not enough money
+for him."
+
+Grim laughed.  "No," he said, "he comes expensive."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"Don't be an ass," said Grim. "You know what."
+
+"Information?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What information?"
+
+"You were sent by the French," said Grim, "to raise the devil
+here in Palestine--no matter why.  You were trying to bring
+off a raid on Judaea.  Who are your friends in Jerusalem who
+were ready to spring surprises?  What surprises?  Who's your
+Jerusalem agent?"
+
+"If I tell you?"
+
+"I'm not the boss.  But I'll see him about it.  Come on--who's
+your agent?"
+
+"Scharnhoff."
+
+Grim whistled.  That he did not believe, I was almost certain,
+but he whistled as if totally new trains of thought had suddenly
+revealed themselves amid a maze of memories.
+
+"You shall speak to the boss," he said after a while.
+
+I fell asleep then, wedged uncomfortably between two men's legs,
+wakened at intervals by the noisy pleading of Mahommed ben Hamza
+and his men for what they called their rights in the matter of
+Abdul Ali's wallet.  They were still arguing the point when we
+ran on the beach near Jericho, where a patrol of incredulous
+Sikhs pounced on us and wanted to arrest Ahmed and Anazeh's
+wounded men.  Grim had an awful time convincing them that he was
+a British officer.  In the end we only settled it by tramping
+about four miles to a guard-house, where a captain in uniform
+gave us breakfast and telephoned for a commisariat lorry.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when we reached Jerusalem and got
+the wounded into hospital.  By the time Grim had changed into
+uniform and put courtplaster where his eyebrows should have been,
+and he, Abdul Ali and I had driven in an official Ford up the
+Mount of Olives to OETA, the sun was not far over the skyline.
+
+Grim had telephoned, so the Administrator was waiting for us.
+Grim went straight in.  It was twenty minutes before we two were
+summoned into his private room, where he sat behind the desk
+exactly as we had left him the other morning.  He looked as if he
+had not moved meanwhile.  Everything was exactly in its place--
+even the vase, covering the white spot on the varnish.  There was
+the same arrangement of too many flowers, in a vase too small to
+hold them.
+
+"Allow me to present Sheikh Abdul Ali of Damascus," said Grim.
+
+The Administrator bowed rather elaborately, perhaps to hide
+the twinkle in his eyes.  He didn't scowl.  He didn't look
+tyrannical.  So Abdul Ali opened on him, with all bow guns.
+
+"I protest!  I am a French subject.  I have been submitted to
+violence, outrage, indignity!  I have been seized on foreign
+soil, and brought here by force against all international
+law!  I shall claim exemplary damages!  I demand apology
+and satisfaction!"
+
+Sir Louis raised his eyebrows and looked straight at Grim without
+even cracking a smile.
+
+"Is this true, Major Grim?"
+
+"Afraid it is, sir."
+
+"Scandalous!  Perfectly scandalous!  And were you a witness to
+all this?" he asked, looking at me as if I might well be the
+cause of it all.
+
+I admitted having seen the greater part of it.
+
+"And you didn't protest?  What's the world coming to?  I see
+you've lost a little skin yourself.  I hope you've not been
+breaking bounds and fighting?"
+
+"He is a most impertinent man!" said Abdul Ali, trying to take
+his cue, and glowering at me.  "He posed as a person interested
+in a school for El-Kerak, and afterward helped capture me by
+a trick!"
+
+The Administrator frowned.  It seemed I was going to be made the
+scape-goat.  I did not care.  I would not have taken a year of
+Sir Louis' pay for those two days and nights.  When he spoke
+again I expected something drastic addressed to me, but I
+was wrong.
+
+"An official apology is due to you, Sheikh Abdul Ali.  Permit me
+to offer it, together with my profound regret for any slight
+personal inconvenience to which you may have been subjected in
+course of this--ah--entirely unauthorized piece of--ah--
+brigandage.  I notice you have been bruised, too.  You shall have
+the best medical attention at our disposal."
+
+"That is not enough!" sneered Abdul Ali, throwing quite
+an attitude.
+
+"I know it isn't.  I was coming to that.  An apology is also due
+to the French--our friends the French.  I shall put it in
+writing, and ask you to convey it to Beirut to the French High
+Commissioner, with my compliments.  I would send you by train,
+but you might be--ah--delayed at Damascus in that case.  Perhaps
+Emir Feisal might detain you.  There will be a boat going from
+Jaffa in two days' time.  Two days will give you a chance to
+recover from the outrageous experience before we escort you to
+the coast.  A first-class passage will be reserved for you by
+wire, and you will be put on board with every possible courtesy.
+You might ask the French High Commissioner to let me know if
+there is anything further he would like us to do about it.  Now,
+I'll ring for a clerk to take you to the medical officer--under
+escort, so that you mayn't be subjected to further outrage or
+indignity.  Good evening!"
+
+"Anything more for me?" asked Grim, as soon as Abdul Ali had been
+led away.
+
+"Not tonight, Grim.  Come and see me in the morning." Grim
+saluted.  The Administrator looked at me--smiled mischievously.
+
+"Have a good time?" he asked.  "Don't neglect those scratches.
+Good evening!"
+
+No more.  Not another word.  He never did say another word to me
+about it, although I met him afterwards a score of times.  You
+couldn't help but admire and like him.
+
+Grim led the way up the tower stairs again, and we took a last
+look at El-Kerak.  The moon was beginning to rise above the rim
+of the Moab Hills.  The land beyond the Dead Sea was wrapped in
+utter silence.  Over to the south-east you could make out one dot
+of yellow light, to prove that men lived and moved and had their
+being in that stillness.  Otherwise, you couldn't believe it was
+real country.  It looked like a vision of the home of dreams.
+
+"Got anything to do tonight?" asked Grim.  "Can you stay awake?
+I know where some Jews are going to play Beethoven in an upper
+room in the ancient city.  Care to come?"
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eleven
+
+"And the rest of the acts of Ahaziah--"
+
+
+I have no idea what Grim did during the next few days.  I spent
+the time studying Arabic, and saw nothing of him until he walked
+into my room at the hotel one afternoon, sat down and came
+straight to the point.
+
+"Had enough?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Got the hang of it?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," I answered.  "Allah's peace, as they call it,
+depends on the French.  They intend to get Damascus and all
+Syria.  So they sent down Abdul Ali of Damascus to make trouble
+for the British in Palestine;  the idea being to force the
+British to make common cause with them.  That would mean total
+defeat for the Arabs;  and Great Britain would save France scads
+of men and money.  But you pulled that plug.  I saw you do it.  I
+heard Abdul Ali of Damascus tell you Scharnhoff's name.  Did you
+go after Scharnhoff?"
+
+"No, not yet," he answered.  "You're no diplomat."
+
+I knew that.  I have never wished to be one, never having met a
+professional one who did not, so to speak, play poker with a cold
+deck and at least five aces.  The more frankly they seem to be
+telling the truth, the more sure you may be they are lying.
+
+"Neither are you," I answered.  "You're a sportsman.  Are you
+allowing Scharnhoff weight for age, and a fair start--or what?"
+
+He chuckled.  "You believed old Abdul-Ali of Damascus?  He's a
+French secret political agent.  So whatever he told us is
+certainly not true.  Or, if it is true, or partially true, then
+it's the kind of truth that is deadlier deceptive than a good
+clean God-damned lie.  Get this:  such men as Abdul Ali would
+face torture rather than betray an associate--unless they're sure
+the associate is a traitor or about to become one.  A government
+can't easily punish its own spies on foreign territory.  But by
+betraying them, it can sometimes get the other government to do
+it.  That Abdul Ali betrayed Scharnhoff to me, proves one of two
+things.  Abdul Ali was lying, and Scharnhoff harmless--or in
+some way Scharnhoff has fallen foul of his French paymasters
+and they want him punished.  Very likely he has drawn French
+money, for their purposes, and has misused it for his own ends.
+Or perhaps they have promised him money, and wish to back down.
+Possibly he knows too much about their agents, and they want
+him silenced.  They propose to have us silence him.  I'm going
+to call on Scharnhoff."
+
+"You suspect him of double treachery?"
+
+"I suspect him of being a one-track-minded, damned old
+visionary."
+
+I had met Hugo Scharnhoff.  Long before the War he had been a
+professor of orientology at Vienna University.  At the moment he
+was technically an "enemy alien."  But he had lived so many years
+in Jerusalem, and was reputed so studious and harmless, that the
+British let him stay there after Allenby captured the city.  A
+man of moderate private means, he owned a stone house in the
+German Colony with its back to the Valley of Hinnom.
+
+"Care to come?" Grim asked me.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Know your Bible?"  He proceeded to quote from it:  "And the rest
+of the acts of Ahaziah which he did are they not written in the
+book of the chronicles of the Kings of Israel?"'
+
+"What of it?"
+
+"That was set down in Aramaic, nowadays called Hebrew, something
+like three thousand years ago," said Grim.  "It's Aramaic magic.
+Let's take a look at it."
+
+We trudged together down the dusty Bethlehem Road, turned to the
+east just short of the Pool of the Sultan (where they now had a
+delousing station for British soldiers) and went nearly to the
+end of the colony of neat stone villas that the Germans built
+before the War, and called Rephaim.  It was a prosperous colony
+until the Kaiser, putting two and two, made five of them and had
+to guess again.
+
+The house we sought stood back from the narrow road, at a corner,
+surrounded by a low stone wall and a mass of rather dense shrubs
+that obscured the view from the windows.  The front door was a
+thing of solid olive-wood.  We had to hammer on it for several
+minutes.  There was no bell.
+
+A woman opened it at last--an Arab in native costume, gazelle-
+eyed, as they all are, and quite good looking, although hardly in
+her first youth.  Her face struck me as haunted.  She was either
+ashamed when her eyes met Grim's or else afraid of him.  But she
+smiled pleasantly enough and without asking our business led the
+way at once to a room at the other end of a long hall that was
+crowded with all sorts of curios.  They were mostly stone bric-a-
+brac-fragments of Moabite pottery and that kind of thing, with a
+pretty liberal covering of ordinary house dust.  In fact, the
+house had the depressing "feel" of a rarely visited museum.
+
+The room she showed us into was the library--three walls lined
+with books, mostly with German titles--a big cupboard in one
+corner, reaching from floor to ceiling--a big desk by the
+window--three armchairs and a stool.  There were no pictures,
+and the only thing that smacked of ornament was the Persian rug
+on the floor.
+
+We waited five minutes before Scharnhoff came in, looking as if
+we had disturbed his nap.  He was an untidy stout man with green
+goggles and a grayish beard, probably not yet sixty years of age,
+and well preserved.  He kept his pants up with a belt, and his
+shirt bulged untidily over the top.  When he sat down you could
+see the ends of thick combinations stuffed into his socks.  He
+gave you the impression of not fitting into western clothes at
+all and of being out of sympathy with most of what they represent.
+
+He was cordial enough--after one swift glance around the room.
+
+"Brought a new acquaintance for you," said Grim, introducing
+me.  "I've told him how all the subalterns come to you for
+Palestinian lore--"
+
+"Ach!  The young Lotharios!  Each man a Don Juan!  All they come
+to me for is tales of Turkish harems, of which I know no more
+than any one.  They are not interested in subjects of real
+importance.  'How many wives had Djemal Pasha?  How many of them
+were European?'  That is what they ask me.  When I discuss
+ancient history it is only about King Solomon's harem that they
+care to know;  or possibly about the modern dancing girls of El-
+Kerak, who are all spies.  But there is no need to inform you as
+to that.  Eh?  I haven't seen you for a long time, Major Grim.
+What have you been doing?"
+
+"Nothing much.  I was at the Tomb of the Kings yesterday."
+
+Scharnhoff smiled scornfully.
+
+"Now you must have some whiskey to take the taste of that untruth
+out of your mouth!  How can a man of your attainments call that
+obviously modern fraud by such a name?  The place is not nearly
+two thousand years old!  It is probably the tomb of a Syrian
+queen named Adiabene and her family.  Josephus mentions it.  This
+land is full--every square metre of it--of false antiquities with
+real names, and real antiquities that never have been discovered!
+But why should a man like you, Major Grim, lend yourself to
+perpetuating falsity?"
+
+He walked over to the cupboard to get whiskey, and from where we
+sat we could both of us see what he was doing.  The cupboard was
+in two parts, top and bottom, without any intervening strip of
+wood between the doors, which fitted tightly.  When he opened the
+top part the lower door opened with it.  He kicked it shut again
+at once, but I had seen inside--not that it was interesting at
+the moment.
+
+He set whiskey and tumblers on the desk, poured liberally, and
+went on talking.
+
+"Tomb of the Kings?  Hah!  Tomb of the Kings of Judah?  Hah!  If
+any one can find that, he will have something more important than
+Ludendorff's memoirs!  Something merkwurdig, believe me!"
+
+He stiffened suddenly, and looked at Grim through the green
+goggles as if he were judging an antiquity.
+
+"Perhaps this is not the time to make you a little suggestion, eh?"
+
+Grim's face wrinkled into smiles.
+
+"This man knows enough to hang me anyhow!  Fire away!"
+
+"Ah!  But I would not like him to hang me!"
+
+"He's as close as a clam.  What's your notion?"
+
+"Nothing serious, but--between us three, then--you and I are both
+foreigners in this place, Major Grim, although I have made it my
+home for fifteen years.  You have no more interest in this
+government and its ridiculous rules than I have.  What do you
+say--shall we find the Tomb of the Kings together?"
+
+Grim wrinkled into smiles again and glanced down at his uniform.
+
+"Yes, exactly!" agreed Scharnhoff.  "That is the whole point.
+They call me an enemy alien.  I am to all intents and purposes a
+prisoner.  You are a British officer--can do what you like--go
+where you like.  You wear red tabs;  you are on the staff;
+nobody will dare to question you.  These English have stopped all
+exploration until they get their mandate.  After that they will
+take good care that only English societies have the exploration
+privilege.  But what if we--you and I, that is to say--between
+us extract the best plum from the pudding before those miscalled
+statesmen sign the mandate--eh?  It can be done!  It can be done!"
+
+Grim chuckled:
+
+"I suppose you already see a picture of you and me with an
+ancient tomb in our trunks--say a few tons of the more artistic
+parts--beating it for the frontier and hawking the stuff
+afterward to second-hand furniture dealers?  Pour me another
+whiskey, prof, and then we'll go steal the Mosque of Omar!"
+
+"Ach!  You laugh at me--you jest--you mock--you sneer.  But I
+know what I propose.  Do you know what will be found in that Tomb
+of the Kings of Judah when we discover it?"
+
+"Bones.  Dry bones.  A few gold ornaments perhaps.  A stale
+smell certainly."
+
+"The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel!  Think of it!
+A parchment roll--perhaps two or three rolls--not too big to go
+into a valise--worth more than all the other ancient manuscripts
+in the world all put together!  Himmel!  What a find that would
+be!  What a record!  What a refutation of all the historians and
+the fools who set themselves up for authorities nowadays!  What a
+price it would bring!  What would your Metropolitan Museum in New
+York not pay for it!  What would the Jews not pay for it!  They
+would raise millions among them and pay any price we cared
+to ask!  The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel--
+only think!"
+
+"But why the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel in the tomb of the
+Kings of Judah?" Grim asked, more by way of keeping up the
+conversation, I think, than because he could not guess the
+answer.  He is an omnivorous reader, and there is not much
+recorded of the Near East that he does not know.
+
+"Don't you know your history?  You know, of course, that after
+King Solomon died the Jews divided into two kingdoms.  The
+latter-day Jews speak of themselves as Israelites, but they are
+nothing of the kind;  they are Judah-ites.  The tribe of Judah
+remained in Jerusalem, forming one small kingdom;  their
+descendants are the Jews of today.  Part of the tribe of Benjamin
+stayed with them.  The other seceding ten tribes called
+themselves the kingdom of Israel."
+
+"Everybody knows that," said Grim.  "What of it?"
+
+"Well, the Assyrians came down and conquered the kingdom of
+Israel--marched all the Israelites away into captivity--and they
+vanished out of history.  From that day to this their Book of
+Chronicles, so often referred to in the Old Testament, has never
+been seen nor heard of."
+
+"Of course not," said Grim.  "The King of Assyria used it to wipe
+his razor on when he was through shaving every morning."
+
+"Ach!  You joke again;  but I tell you I am not joking.  Such
+people as those Hebrews are naturally secretive and so proud that
+they wrote down for posterity all the doings of their puny kings,
+would never have let their records fall into the hands of the
+Assyrians.  They themselves were marched away in slave-gangs, but
+they left their Book behind them, safely hidden.  Be sure of it!
+Ten years ago I found a manuscript in the place they now call
+Nablus, which in those days was Schechem.  Schechem was the
+capital of the Kingdom of Israel, just as Jerusalem was the
+capital of the Kingdom of Judah, or the Jews.  I sold that
+manuscript for a good price after I had photographed it.  The
+idiots to whom I sold it--historians they call themselves!--value
+it only as a relic of antiquity.  I made a digest of it--analyzed
+it--studied it--compared it with other authentic facts in my
+possession--and came to the definite conclusion that I hold the
+clue to the whereabouts of that lost Book of Chronicles."
+
+"Let's see the photograph," Grim suggested.
+
+"It has been impounded with other so-called 'enemy property' by
+your friends the British.  I suppose they thought the German
+General Staff might get hold of it and conquer the Suez Canal!
+But what good would the sight of it do?  You couldn't understand
+a word of it.  It convinced me, after months of study, that when
+the Ten Tribes were carried away into captivity by the Assyrians
+they sent their records secretly to Jerusalem.  Ever since the
+secession the Israelites and Jews had been jealous enemies.  But
+they were relatives after all, boasting a common ancestor, proud
+of the same history, more or less observing the same religion.
+And Schechem was only about thirty miles from Jerusalem, which
+was considered an impregnable fortress until the Babylonians took
+it later on.  So they sent their records to Jerusalem, and the
+Jews hid them.  Where?  Where do you suppose?"
+
+"The likeliest place would be Solomon's Temple."
+
+"You think so?  Then you think superficially, my young friend.
+Let us return to that Tomb of the Kings again for a moment.  That
+place that you visited is such an obvious fake that even the
+guide-books make light of it.  The one all-important thing in
+Palestine that never yet has been discovered is the real Tomb of
+the Kings.  Yet Jerusalem, where it certainly must be, has been
+searched and looted a hundred times from end to end.  Therefore--
+you follow me?--the Jews must have concealed it very cunningly.
+Answer me, then:  would the Jews, who were always a practical
+people and not corpse-worshippers like the Egyptians, have taken
+all that trouble to hide the tomb of their kings unless there
+were important treasure in it?  Answer me!"
+
+"So you expect to find treasure in addition to the lost Book of
+Chronicles?"
+
+"Certainly I do!  The treasure will make the whole proceeding
+safe.  Let the British have it!  The fools will be so blinded by
+the glamour of gold, that I shall easily extract the things of
+real value--the invaluable manuscripts!  Then let the men who
+call themselves historians take a back seat!"
+
+He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
+
+"Were you looking for the Tomb of the Kings, then, before the
+War?" Grim asked him.
+
+"Not exactly.  Under the Turks it was difficult.  The Turks were
+beautifully corrupt.  By paying for it I could get permission to
+excavate on any property owned by Christians.  But the minute I
+touched Moslem places the Turks became fanatical.  The Arabs,
+now, are different--fanatics, too, but with a new sort of
+fanaticism--new to them, I mean--the kind that made the French
+revolutionists destroy everything their ancestors had set value
+on.  There are plenty of Arabs so full of this disease of
+Bolshevism that they would make it easy for me to desecrate what
+others believe is holy ground.  But these idiots of English are
+worse than the Turks!  They have stopped all excavation.  They
+are so afraid of Bolshevism that, if they could, they would
+imitate Joshua and make the sun stand still!"
+
+"Well, what's the idea?" asked Grim, finishing his whiskey.
+
+Scharnhoff shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You know my position.  I am helpless--here on suffrance--obliged
+by idiotic regulations to sit in idleness.  But if I could find a
+British officer with brains--surely there must be one somewhere!
+--one with some authority, who is considered above suspicion, I
+could show him, perhaps, how to get rich without committing any
+crime he need feel ashamed of."
+
+I could not see Grim's eyes from where I sat, and he did not make
+any nervous movement that could have given him away.  Yet I was
+conscious of a new alertness, and I think Scharnhoff detected it,
+too, for he changed his tactics on the instant.
+
+"Hah! Hah!  I was joking!  Nobody who is fool enough to be a
+professional soldier would be clever enough to find the Tomb of
+the Kings and keep the secret for ten minutes!  Hah! Hah!  But I
+have a favour I would like to beg of you, Major Grim."
+
+"I've no particular authority, you know."
+
+"Ach!  The Administrator listens to you;  I am assured of that."
+
+"He listens sometimes, yes, then usually does the other thing.
+Well, what's the request?"
+
+"A simple one.  There is a risk--not much, but just a little risk
+that some fool might stumble on that secret of the Tomb of the
+Kings and get away with the treasure.  Now, did you ever set a
+thief to catch a thief?  Hah! Hah!  I would be a better watch-dog
+than any you could find.  I know Jerusalem from end to end.  I
+know all the likely places.  Why don't you get permission for me
+to wander about Jerusalem undisturbed and keep my eye open for
+tomb-robbers?  If I am not to have the privilege of discovering
+that Book of Chronicles, at least I would like to see that no
+common plunderer gets it.  Surely I am known by now to be
+harmless!  Surely they don't suspect me any longer of being an
+agent of the Kaiser, or any such nonsense as that!  Why not make
+use of me?  Get me a permit, please, Major Grim, to go where I
+please by day or night without interference.  Tomb-robbers
+usually work at night, you know."
+
+"All right," said Grim.  "I'll try to do that."
+
+"Ah!  I always knew you were a man of good sense!  Have more
+whiskey?  A cigar then?"
+
+"Can't promise anything, of course," said Grim, "but you shall
+have an answer within twenty-four hours."
+
+Outside, as we turned our faces toward Jerusalem's gray wall,
+Grim opened up a little and gave me a suggestion of something in
+the wind.
+
+"Did you see what he has in that cupboard?"
+
+"Yes.  Two Arab costumes.  Two short crow-bars."
+
+"Did you notice the grayish dust on the rug--three or four
+footprints at the corner near the cupboard?"
+
+"Can't say I did."
+
+"No.  You wouldn't be looking for it.  These men who pose as
+intellectuals never believe that any one else has brains.  They
+fool themselves.  There's one thing no man can afford to do, East
+of the sun or West of the moon.  You can steal, slay, intrigue,
+burn--break all the Ten Commandments except one, and have a
+chance to get away with it.  There's just one thing you can't do,
+and succeed.  He's done it!"
+
+"And the thing is?"
+
+"Cheat a woman!"
+
+"You mean his house keeper?  She who answered the door?"
+
+Grim nodded.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twelve
+
+"You know you'll get scuppered if you're found out!"
+
+
+Two days passed again without my seeing Grim, although I called
+on him repeatedly at the "Junior Staff Officers' Mess" below the
+Zionist Hospital.  Suliman, the eight-year-old imp of Arab
+mischief, who did duty as page-boy met me on each occasion at the
+door and took grinning delight in disappointing me.
+
+He was about three and a half feet high--coal-black, with a
+tarboosh worn at an angle on his kinky hair and a flashing white
+grin across his snub-nosed face that would have made an archangel
+count the change out of two piastres twice.  Suliman and cool
+cheek were as obvious team-mates as the Gemini, and I was one of
+a good number, that included every single member of that
+unofficial mess, who could never quite see what Grim found so
+admirable in him.  Grim never explained.
+
+Taking the cue from his master, neither did Suliman ever
+explain anything to any one but Grim, who seemed to understand
+him perfectly.
+
+"Jimgrim not here.  No, not coming back.  Much business.
+Good-bye!"
+
+Somehow you couldn't suspect that kid of telling the truth.
+However, there was nothing for it but to go away, with a
+conviction in the small of your back that he was grinning
+mischievously after you.
+
+Grim had found him one day starving and lousy in the archway of
+the Jaffa Gate, warming his fingers at a guttering candle-end
+preparatory to making a meal off the wax.  He took him home and
+made Martha, the old Russian maid-of-all-work, clean him with
+kerosene and soft soap--gave him a big packing-case to sleep
+in along with Julius Caesar the near-bull-dog mascot--and
+thereafter broke him in and taught him things seldom included
+in a school curriculum.
+
+In the result, Suliman adored Grim with all the concentrated zeal
+of hero-worship of which almost any small boy is capable;  but
+under the shadow of Grim's protection he feared not even "brass-
+hats" nor regarded civilians, although he was dreadfully afraid
+of devils.  The devil-fear was a relic of his negroid ancestry.
+Some Arab Sheikh probably captured his great-grandmother on a
+slave-raid.  Superstition lingers in dark veins longer than any
+other human failing.
+
+I think I called five times before he confessed at last
+reluctantly that Grim was in.  That was in the morning after
+breakfast, and I was shown into the room with the fireplace and
+the deep armchairs.  Grim was reading but seemed to me more than
+usually reserved, as if the book had been no more than a screen
+to think behind, that left him in a manner unprotected when he
+laid it down.  I talked at random, and he hardly seemed to
+be listening.
+
+"Say," he said, suddenly interrupting me, "you came out of that
+El-Kerak affair pretty creditably.  Suppose I let you see
+something else from the inside.  Will you promise not to shout it
+all over Jerusalem?"
+
+"Use your own judgment," I answered.
+
+"You mustn't ask questions."
+
+"All right."
+
+"If any one in the Administration pounces on you in the course of
+it, you'll have to drop out and know nothing."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"It may prove a bit more risky than the El-Kerak business."
+
+"Couldn't be," I answered.
+
+"You can't talk enough Arabic to get away with.  But could you
+act deaf and dumb?"
+
+"Sure--in three languages."
+
+"You understand--I've no authority to let you in on this.  I
+might catch hell if I were found out doing it.  But I need help,
+of a certain sort.  I want a man who isn't likely to be spotted
+by the gang I'm after.  Get behind that screen--quick!"
+
+It was a screen that hid a door leading to the pantry and the
+servants' quarters.  There was a Windsor chair behind it, and it
+is much easier to keep absolutely still when you are fairly
+comfortable.  I had hardly sat down when a man wearing spurs,
+who trod heavily, entered the room and I heard Grim get up to
+greet him.
+
+"Are we alone?" a voice asked gruffly.
+
+Instead of answering Grim came and looked behind the screen,
+opened the door leading to the pantry, closed it again, locked
+it, and without as much as a glance at me returned to face
+his visitor.
+
+"Well, general, what is it?"
+
+"This is strictly secret."
+
+"I'll bet it isn't," said Grim.  "If it's about missing
+explosives I know more than you do."
+
+"My God!  It's out?  Two tons of TNT intended for the air force
+gone without a trace?  The story's out?"
+
+"I know it.  Catesby sent me word by messenger last night from
+Ludd, after you put him under arrest."
+
+"Damn the man!  Well, that's what's happened.  Catesby's fault.
+They'll blame me.  The truck containing the stuff was run into a
+siding three days ago.  Through young Catesby's negligence it was
+left there without a guard.  Catesby will be broke for that as
+sure as my name is Jenkins.  But, by the knell of hell's bells,
+Grim, more than Catesby will lose their jobs unless we find the
+stuff!  Two tons.  Half enough to blow up Palestine!"
+
+"Too bad about Catesby," said Grim.
+
+"Never mind, Catesby.  Damn him!  Consider my predicament!  How
+can I go to the Administrator with a lame-duck story about
+missing TNT and nothing done about it?"
+
+"Nothing done?  You've passed the buck, haven't you?  Catesby is
+under arrest, you say."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I know Catesby," Grim retorted quietly.  "He made that fine
+stand at Beersheba--when the Arabs rushed the camp, and you
+weren't looking.  He took the blame for your carelessness, and
+never squealed.  You took the credit for his presence of mind,
+and have treated him like a dog ever since.  You expect me to try
+to save your bacon and forget Catesby's?"
+
+"Nonsense, Grim!  You're talking without your book.  Here's what
+happened:  the stuff arrived at Ludd in a truck attached to the
+end of a mixed train.  The R.T.O.* sent me a memorandum and
+stalled the truck on a siding.  I gave the memorandum to
+Catesby." [*Railway Traffic Officer.]
+
+"He tells me in the note I received last night that you did
+nothing of the kind."
+
+"Then he's a liar.  He forgot all about it and did nothing.  When
+the Air Force sent to get the stuff the truck was empty."
+
+"And you want me to find it, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes.  The quicker the better!"
+
+"And be a party to breaking Catesby?  I like my job, but not
+that much!"
+
+"You refuse then to hunt for the TNT?"
+
+"I take my orders straight from the Administrator.  He expects me
+in half an hour.  You want me to smooth the way for you with Sir
+Louis.  I'm much more interested in Catesby, who would face a
+firing party sooner than soak another fellow for his own fault.
+Catesby assures me in writing that the first he ever heard of
+that TNT was when you ordered him arrested after discovery of the
+loss.  His word goes, as far as I'm concerned.  If you want me to
+help you, find another goat than Catesby.  That's my answer."
+
+There followed quite a long pause.  Perhaps Brigadier-General
+Jenkins was wondering what chance he would stand in a show-down.
+Whoever had heard the mess and canteen gossip knew that Jenkins'
+career had been one long string of miracles by which he had
+attained promotion without in any way deserving it, and a
+parallel series of even greater ones by which he had saved
+himself from ruin by contriving to blame some one else.
+
+"You want me to white-wash Catesby?" he said at last.  "If you
+pounce quickly on the TNT, no one need know it was lost."
+
+"If you court-martial Catesby, the public shall know who lost it,
+and who didn't, even if it costs me my commission!"
+
+"Blast you!  Insubordination!"
+
+"Is your car outside?" Grim answered.  "Why don't you drive me up
+to the Administrator and charge me with it?"
+
+"Don't be an idiot!  I came to you to avoid a scandal.  If this
+news gets out there'll be a panic.  Things are touchy enough as
+it is."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well--if I drop the charge against Catesby--?"
+
+"Then I shall not have to fight for him."
+
+"I'll see what I can do."
+
+"Be definite!"
+
+"Damn and blast you!  All right, I'll clear Catesby."
+
+In that ominous minute, like the devil in an old-time drama,
+Suliman knocked at the door leading from the outer hall.  Grim
+opened it, and I heard the boy's voice piping up in Arabic.  The
+Administrator was in his car outside, waiting to know whether
+Major Grim was indoors.
+
+"Where's your car?" I heard Grim ask.
+
+"I sent the man to get a tire changed," Jenkins answered.
+
+"Then Sir Louis needn't know you're here.  Do you want to
+see him?"
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"You can get behind that screen if you like."
+
+I thought Jenkins would explode when he found me sitting there.
+He was a big, florid-faced man with a black moustache waxed into
+points, and a neck the color of rare roast beef--a man not given
+to self-restraint in any shape or form.  But he had to make a
+quick decision.  Sir Louis' footsteps were approaching.  He
+glared at me, made a sign to me to sit still, twisted his
+moustache savagely, and listened, breathing through his mouth to
+avoid the tell-tale whistle of his hairy nostrils.  I heard Grim
+start toward the hall, but Sir Louis turned him back and came
+straight in.
+
+"It occurred to me I'd save you the time of coming up to see me
+this morning, Grim, and look in on you instead before I start my
+rounds.  Any new developments?"
+
+"Not yet, sir.  I'll need forty-eight hours.  If we move too
+fast they may touch the stuff off before we get the whole gang
+in the net."
+
+"You're sure you'd rather not have the police?"
+
+"Quite.  They mean well, but they're clumsy."
+
+"Um-m-m!  All the same, the thing's ticklish.  There are rumours
+about all ready.  The Grand Mufti* came to me before breakfast
+with a wild tale.  I've promised him some Sikhs for special
+sentry duty.  He'd hardly gone before some Zionists came with a
+story that the Arabs are planning to blow up their hospital;  I
+gave them ten men and an officer."  [*The religious head of the
+Moslem community.]
+
+"Is the city quiet?" Grim asked him.
+
+"Fair to middling.  The Jews refused to take their shutters down
+this morning.  I had to issue an order about it.  I hear now that
+they're doing business about as usual, but I've ordered the
+number of men on duty within the city walls to be doubled.  At
+the first sign of disturbance I shall have the gates closed.  Are
+you quite sure you're in touch?"
+
+"Quite. sure, sir.  I'm positive of what I told you last night.
+Will you be seeing Colonel Goodenough?"
+
+"Yes, in ten minutes."
+
+"Please ask him to hold his Sikhs at my disposal for the next two
+days.  You might add, sir, that if he cares to see sport he could
+do worse than lend his own services."
+
+"I'll do that.  You can count on Goodenough.  That's a soldier
+devoid of nonsense.  Anything else?"
+
+"That's all."
+
+"Keep me informed.  Remember, Grim, I'm responsible for all you
+do.  I've endorsed you in blank, as it were.  Don't overlook
+that point."
+
+"I won't, sir."
+
+Sir Louis walked out.  Almost before his spurs ceased jingling in
+the tiled hall, Brigadier-General Jenkins strode out in a
+towering rage from behind the screen.
+
+"'Pon my soul, a spy's trick!" he exploded.  "Had an
+eavesdropper, did you?  Listening from behind a screen while you
+tricked me into a promise on Catesby's account!"
+
+"Sure," Grim answered, folding the screen back, and letting
+his face wrinkle in smiles all the way up to the roots of
+his hair.  Very comical he looked, for his eyebrows were
+only partly sprouted again.  "Had two of you to listen in
+on the Administrator!"
+
+"Endorses you in blank, eh?  How long would he let the
+endorsement stand if he knew I was behind that screen while he
+was talking to you?"
+
+"Try him!" Grim suggested.  "Shall I call him back?  He doesn't
+want to break you--told me so, in fact, last night--but he could
+change his mind, I daresay.  My tip to you is to get back to Ludd
+as fast as your car can take you, release Catesby, and say as
+little as possible to any one!"
+
+"Damn you for a Yankee!" Jenkins answered.  "You've got me
+cornered for the moment, and you make the most of it.  But wait
+till my turn comes!  As for you, sir," Jenkins turned and looked
+me up and down with all the arrogance that nice new crossed
+swords on his shoulder can give a certain sort of man, "don't let
+me catch you trying to interfere in any Administration business,
+that's all!"
+
+I offered him a cigarette, grinning.  There was no sense in
+picking a quarrel.  No man likes to discover that a perfect
+stranger has overheard his intimate confessions.  His annoyance
+was understandable.  But he hadn't nice manners.  He knocked the
+cigarette case out of my hand and kicked it across the room.  So
+I got into one of the deep armchairs and laughed at him in self-
+defense, to preserve my own temper from boiling up over the top.
+
+"To hell with both of you!" Jenkins thundered, and strode out
+like Mars on the war-path.
+
+"Poor old Jinks!" said Grim, as soon as he had gone.  "As Sir
+Louis said last night, he has a wife and family besides the
+unofficial ladies on his string.  All they'll have to divide
+between them soon, at the rate he's going, will be his half-pay.
+He has fought for promotion all his days, to keep abreast of
+expenses.  What that string of cormorants will do with his four
+hundred pounds a year, when he oversteps at last and gets
+retired, beggars imagination!  However, let's get busy."
+
+Business consisted in dressing me up as an Arab with the aid of
+Suliman, and drilling me painstakingly for half-an-hour, both of
+them using every trick they knew to make me laugh or show
+surprise, and Grim nodding approval each time I contrived not to.
+More difficult than acting deaf and dumb was the trick of
+squatting with my legs crossed, but I had learned it after a
+fashion in India years ago, and only needed schooling.
+
+"You'll get scuppered if you're caught," he warned me.  "If
+Suliman wasn't so scared of devils I wouldn't risk it, but I must
+have somebody to keep an eye on him when the time comes;  that'll
+be tomorrow, I think."
+
+"Suppose you tell me the object of the game," I suggested.  "I'm
+sick of only studying the rules."
+
+"Well--your part will be to sit over those two tons of TNT and
+see that nobody explodes them ahead of time.  There's a
+conspiracy on foot to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
+
+"You mean the Mosque of Omar?"
+
+"The place tourists call the Mosque of Omar.  The site of
+Solomon's Temple--the Rock of Abraham--the threshing-floor of
+Araunah the Jebusite.  Next after the shrine at Mecca it's the
+most sacred spot in the whole Mahommedan world."
+
+"Good lord!" I said. "Are the Zionists so reckless?".
+
+"No, the Arabs are.  Remember what old Scharnhoff said the other
+day about the new fanaticism?"
+
+"Is Scharnhoff mixed up in it?"
+
+"He's being watched.  If the Arabs pull it off, they'll accuse
+the Jews of doing it, and set to work to butcher every Jew in the
+Near East.  That will oblige the British to protect the Jews.
+That in turn will set every Mohammedan in the world--'specially
+Indians, but Egyptians, too--against the British.  Jihad--green
+banner--holy war--all the East and Northern Africa alight while
+the French snaffle Syria.  Sound good to you?"
+
+"Sir Louis knows this?"
+
+"He, is paid to know things."
+
+"And he lets you play cat and mouse with it?"
+
+"Got to be careful.  Suppose we draw the net too soon, what then?
+Most of the conspirators escape.  The story leaks out.  The Jews
+get the blame for the attempt, and sooner or later the massacre
+begins anyhow.  What we've got to do is bag every last mother's
+son of them, and suppress the whole story--return the TNT to
+store, and swear it was never missing."
+
+"The Administrator has his nerve," I said.
+
+"You'll need yours, too, before this game's played," Grim
+answered.  "D'you see now why I picked on you for an accomplice?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"You're the one man in Jerusalem whom nobody will suspect, or be
+on the look-out for.  The men we're up against are the shrewdest
+rats in Palestine.  They've got a list of British officers, my
+name included, of course.  They'll know which men are assigned to
+special duty, and they'll keep every one of us shadowed."
+
+"Won't that--I mean, how can you work if you're shadowed?"
+
+"Me?  I shall catch my spur in the carpet, fall downstairs and
+break a leg at ten-fifteen.  At ten-thirty the doctor comes, and
+finds me too badly hurt to be moved.  He sends word of it to Sir
+Louis by an orderly who can be trusted to talk to any one he
+meets on the way.  I leave by the back way at ten forty-five.
+However, here's a chance for you to practise deaf-and-dumb drill.
+There's some one coming.  Squat down in that corner.  Look meek
+and miserable.  That's the stuff.  Answer the door, Suliman."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Thirteen
+
+"You may now be unsafe and an outlaw and enjoy yourself!"
+
+
+The man who entered was a short, middle-aged Jew of the type that
+writes political reviews for magazines--black morning coat, straw
+hat, gold pince-nez--a neatly trimmed dark beard beginning to
+turn gray from intense mental emotion--nearly bald--a manner of
+conceding the conventions rather than argue the point, without
+admitting any necessity for them--a thin-lipped smile that
+apologized for smiling in a world so serious and bitter.  He wore
+a U.S.A. ten-dollar gold piece on his watch chain, by way of
+establishing his nationality.
+
+"Well, Mr. Eisernstein?  Trouble again?  Sit down and let's hear
+the worst," said Grim.
+
+Eisernstein remained standing and glanced at me over in the
+corner.
+
+"I will wait until you are alone."
+
+"Ignore him--deaf and dumb," Grim answered.  "Half a minute,
+though--have you had breakfast?"
+
+"Breakfast!  This is no time for eating, Mister--I beg your
+pardon, Major Grim.  I have not slept.  I shall not break
+my fast until my duty is done.  If it is true that the Emperor
+Nero fiddled while Rome burned, then I find him no worse than
+this Administrator!"
+
+"Has he threatened to crucify you?" Grim asked.  "Take a
+seat, do."
+
+"He may crucify me, and I will thank him, if he will only in
+return for it pay some attention to the business for which he
+draws a salary!  I drove to Headquarters to see him.  He was not
+there.  Nobody would tell me where he is.  I drove down again
+from the Mount of Olives and luckily caught sight of his car in
+the distance.  I contrived to intercept him.  I told him there is
+a plot on foot to massacre every individual of my race in the
+Near East--a veritable pogrom.  He was polite.  He seems to think
+politeness is the Christian quality that covers the multitude of
+sins.  He offered me a cigar!
+
+"I offered him a telegram blank, with which to cable for
+reenforcements!  He said that all rumours in Jerusalem become
+exaggerated very quickly, and offered me a guard of one soldier
+to follow me about!  I insisted on immediate military precautions
+on a large scale failing which I will cable the Foreign Office in
+London at my own expense.  I offered to convince him with
+particulars about this contemplated pogrom but he said he had an
+urgent appointment and referred me to you, just as Nero might
+have referred a question regarding the amphitheatre to one of
+his subordinates!"
+
+"Pogroms mean nothing in his young life," Grim answered smiling.
+"I'm here to do the dirty work.  Suppose you spill the news."
+
+"You must have heard the news!  Yet you ignore it!  The Moslems
+are saying that we Zionists have offered two million pounds, or
+some such ridiculous sum, for the site of Solomon's Temple.  They
+are spreading the tale broadcast.  Their purpose is to stir up
+fanaticism against us.  The ignorant among them set such value on
+that rock and the mosque their cut-throat ancestors erected on it
+that Jews are now openly threatened as they pass through the
+streets.  Yet there is not one word of truth in the story of our
+having made any such offer."
+
+"There are plenty of troops," said Grim.  "Any attempt at
+violence could be handled instantly."
+
+"Then you will do nothing?"
+
+"What do you suggest ought to be done?"
+
+"Here is a list.  Read it.  Those are the names of fifty Arabs
+who are active in spreading anti-Zionist propaganda."
+
+Grim read the list carefully.
+
+"All talkers," he said.  "Not a really dangerous man among them."
+
+"Ah!  There you are!  I might have expected it!"  Eisernstein
+threw up his hands in a gesture of contempt rather than despair.
+"Nobody cares what happens to Jews.  Nobody cares for our
+sleepless agony of mind.  Nobody cares how or what we suffer
+until afterward, when there will be polite expressions of regret,
+which the survivors will assess at a true valuation!  It is the
+same wherever we turn.  Last night--at half-past one in the
+morning--a committee of us, every one American, Called at the
+American consulate to tell our consul of our danger.  The consul
+was unsympathetic in the last degree.  Yet our coreligionists in
+the States are taxed to pay his salary.  He said it was not
+his business.  He referred us to the Administrator.  The
+Administrator refers me to you.  To whom do you refer me?  To the
+devil, I suppose!"
+
+"The best thing you can do," said. Grim, "is to go ahead and deny
+that story about the offer to buy the Dome of the Rock.  You
+Zionists have got the most efficient publicity bureau on earth.
+You can reach the public ear any time you want to.  Deny the
+story, and keep on denying it."
+
+"Ah!  Who will believe us?  To be a Zionist is to be a person
+about whom anybody will believe anything;  and the more absurd
+the lie, the more readily it will be believed!  Meanwhile, the
+Moslems are sharpening their swords against us from one end of
+this land to the other!"
+
+I suppose that what Eisernstein really needed more than anything
+was sympathy, not good advice.  Grim's deliberate coolness only
+irritated the passion of a man, whose whole genius and energy
+were bent on realizing the vision of a nation of Jews firmly
+established in their ancient home.  A people that has been
+tortured in turn by all the governments can hardly be expected to
+produce un-nervous politicians.  He was at the mercy of emotions,
+obsessed by one paramount idea.  A little praise just then of his
+loyalty to an ideal, to which he had sacrificed time, means,
+health, energy, everything, would have soothed him and hurt
+nobody.  But the acidity of his scorn had bitten beneath the
+surface of Grim's good humor.
+
+"There'll be no pogrom," Grim said, getting up and lighting a
+cigarette.  "There'll be nothing resembling one.  But that won't
+be the fault of you Zionists.  You accuse without rime or reason,
+but you yell for help the minute you're accused yourselves.  I
+don't blame the Arabs for not liking you.  Nobody expects Arabs
+to enjoy having their home invaded by an organization of
+foreigners.  Yet if this Administration lifts a finger to make
+things easier for the Arabs you howl that it's unfair.
+
+"If the Administrator refuses to arrest Arabs for talking a
+little wildly, you call him a Nero.  I'm neither pro- nor anti-
+Zionist myself.  You and the Arabs may play the game out between
+you for all of me.  But I can promise you there'll be no pogrom.
+It is my business to know just what precautions have been taken."
+
+"Words! Major Grim.  Words!" sneered Eisernstein, getting up to
+go.  "What do words amount to, when presently throats are to be
+cut?  If your throat were in danger, I venture to say there would
+be something doing, instead of mere talk about precautions!  I
+hope you will enjoy your little cigarette," he added bitterly.
+"Good morning!"
+
+"Talk of fiddling while Rome burns!" Grim laughed as soon as the
+Zionist had left the room.  "Has it ever occurred to you that
+Nero was possibly smothering his feelings?  I wonder how long
+there'd be one Zionist left out here, if we simply stood aside
+and looked on.  Go and change your clothes, Suliman.  It's time I
+broke a leg."
+
+Grim disappeared upstairs himself, and returned about ten minutes
+later in the uniform of a Shereefian officer--that is to say, of
+Emir Feisul's Syrian army.  Nothing could be smarter, not
+anything better calculated to disguise a man.  Disguise, as any
+actor or detective can tell you, is not so much a matter of make-
+up as suggestion.  It is little mannerisms--unstudied habits that
+identify.  The suggestion that you are some one else is the thing
+to strive for, not the concealment of who you really are.
+
+Grim's skin had been sun-tanned in the Arab campaign under
+Lawrence against the Turks.  The Shereefian helmet is a
+compromise between the East and West, having a strip of cloth
+hanging down behind it as far as the shoulders and covering the
+ears on either side, to take the place of the Arab head-dress.
+The khaki uniform had just enough of Oriental touch about it
+to distinguish it from that of a British officer.  No man
+inexperienced in disguise would dream of choosing it;  for the
+simple reason that it would not seem to him disguise enough.  Yet
+Grim now looked so exactly like somebody else that it was hard to
+believe he was the same man who had been in the room ten minutes
+before.  His mimicry of the Syrian military walk--blended of
+pride and desire not to seem proud--was perfect.
+
+"I'm now staff-captain Ali Mirza of Feisul's army," he announced.
+"Ali Mirza a man notorious for his anti-British rancor, but
+supposed to be down here just now on a diplomatic mission.  I've
+been seen about the streets like this for the last two days.  But
+say:  that doctor is a long time on the way."
+
+He went to the telephone, but did not call the hospital;  that
+would have been too direct and possibly too secret.
+
+"Give me Headquarters--yes--who's that?--never mind who's
+speaking--say: I can't get the military hospital--something wrong
+with the wire--will you call Major Templeton and say that Major
+Grim has had an accident--yes, Grim--compound fracture of the
+thigh--very serious--ask him to go at once to Major Grim's
+quarters--thanks--that's all."  He returned to the fireplace and
+stood watching me meditatively for several minutes.
+
+"If you deceive Templeton, you'll do," he said at last.  "Wait
+a minute."
+
+He went to the desk and scribbled something in Arabic on a sheet
+of paper, sealed that in a blank envelope, and handed it to me.
+
+"Hide it.  You've two separate and quite distinct tasks, each
+more important and, in a way, dangerous than the other.  The
+principal danger is to me, not you.  If they spot you, my
+number's as good as hoisted from that minute.  You mustn't kid
+yourself you're safe for one second until the last card has
+been played."
+
+"Who are 'they'?"
+
+"I'm coming to that.  Your first job is to make it possible for
+me to get the confidence of one or two of these conspirators.
+You're a deaf-and-dumb man--stone deaf--with a message for staff-
+captain Ali Mirza, which you will only deliver to him in person.
+Suliman does the talking.  You say nothing.  You simply refuse to
+hand your message over to any one but me.  They'll appreciate why
+a deaf and dumb man should be chosen for treasonable business.
+But perhaps you're scared--maybe you'd rather reconsider it?
+It's not too late."
+
+I snorted.
+
+"All right.  These conspirators meet at Djemal's coffee shop on
+David Street.  They talk to one another in French, because the
+proprietor and the other frequenters of the place only know
+Arabic.  You know French and Arabic enough to understand a
+sentence here and there, so keep your ears wide open.  I shan't
+show up until a Sikh named Narayan Singh tells me that a certain
+Noureddin Ali is in there.  He's the bird I'm after.  He's a
+dirty little murderer, and I'm going to be right pleasant to him.
+
+"You may have to sit in the place all day waiting for me;  but
+wait until after midnight if you must.  Sooner or later Noureddin
+Ali is bound to show up.  I shall be hard after him.  If they
+offer you food, take it.  Eat with your fingers.  Eat like a pig.
+Lick the plate, if you like.  The nearer mad you seem to be, the
+safer you are.  After I get there, hang around until I give you
+money.  Then beat it."
+
+"Where to?  I can't go to my room at the hotel in this disguise."
+
+"I've thought of that.  You know Cosmopolitan Oil Davey, of
+course?  He lives at the hotel.  I'll get word to him that he may
+expect a messenger from me after dark tonight.  He'll leave word
+with the porter downstairs, who'll take you to Davey's room.  You
+can tell Davey absolutely anything.  He's white."
+
+"Well, I think I can execute that maneuver.  What's task
+number two?"
+
+"To sit on the TNT!  But one thing at a time is enough.  Let's
+attend to this one first.  Ah!  Here comes Templeton!"
+
+"Damn you, Grim!" said a calm voice in the doorway.  A tall, lean
+man in major's uniform with the blue tabs of the medical staff
+strode in.  He had the dried-out look of the Sudan, added to the
+self-reliance that comes of deciding life and death issues at a
+moment's notice.
+
+"The hospital is crowded with patients, and here you immobilize
+me for half a morning.  I can't pretend to set a compound
+fracture in ten minutes, you know!  Why couldn't you break your
+neck and have me sign a death certificate?"
+
+"Didn't occur to me," said Grim.  "But never mind, doc.  You need
+a rest.  Here's tobacco, lots to read, and an armchair.  Lock
+yourself in and be happy."
+
+"Who's this?" asked Templeton, looking down at me.
+
+"Deaf and dumb poor devil, earning a few piastres by working for
+the Intelligence."
+
+"Spy, eh?  He looks fit for honest work if he had all his
+faculties.  Is he dumb as well as deaf, or because he's deaf?"
+
+"Dunno," said Grim.  "He never speaks."
+
+"Perhaps I can do something for him.  Suppose you leave him here
+with me.  I can give him a thorough examination instead of
+wasting my time here."
+
+"He's got a job of work to do right now," said Grim.
+
+"Does he know the sign language?  Have you any way of telling him
+to come and see me at the hospital?"
+
+"I give him written instructions in Arabic."
+
+"That so?  I'll look at his ears--tell you in a minute whether
+it's worth while to come to me."
+
+He took my head between strong, authoritative hands and tilted
+it sidewise.
+
+"Hello!  What's this?"
+
+The Arab head-dress I was wearing shifted and showed
+non-Arab symptoms.
+
+"Open that bag of mine, will you, Grim, and pass me that big pair
+of forceps you'll find wrapped in oiled paper on top of
+everything.  There's something I can attend to here at once."
+
+It was an uncomfortable moment.  Grim never cracked a smile.  He
+dug out the instrument of torture and gave it to Templeton.  But
+there were two points that occurred to me, in addition to the
+knowledge that nothing whatever was the matter with my ear.
+Doctors in good standing, who are usually gentlemen, don't
+operate without permission;  and the forceps were much too big
+for any such purpose.  So I sat still.
+
+"Um-m-m!  What he really needs is a red-hot needle run down close
+to the ear-drum.  It wouldn't take five minutes, or hurt him--
+much.  After that I think he'd be able to hear perfectly.
+Suppose we try."
+
+"I can wait ten minutes yet," Grim answered.
+
+"Very well.  I've a platinum needle in the bag.  I'll get out the
+spirit-lamp and we'll soon see.  To be candid with you, I don't
+believe the man's any more deaf than you or I."
+
+"If you run a hot needle through the lobe of his ear well
+find out whether he can really talk or not," said Grim in
+his pleasantest voice.  "If he's shamming I don't mind.
+What we need in this service is a man who can endure without
+betraying himself."
+
+"Well, we'll soon see."
+
+I began to hate Grim pretty cordially.  I hated him more when
+Suliman came in, dressed for the street in a rather dirty cotton
+smock, with a turban in place of his fez.  He told the boy to
+hold the wooden handle of a paper-knife behind my ear to prevent
+the hot needle from going too far on its sizzling journey.
+It didn't seem to me the way to reciprocate volunteer secret
+service.  Suliman's grin at the prospect of seeing a man
+tortured was enough to provoke murder.  I brushed the boy aside,
+fly-fashion, got up, crossed the room, and sat down again in
+the corner.
+
+"Good enough!" laughed Grim.  "You'll do."
+
+"Yes, I think he'll do," agreed Templeton.
+
+But I took no notice.  I had seen too many games lost and won
+with the last card.  Templeton looked down at Suliman:
+
+"Tell him the game's over.  He may talk now."
+
+"Mafish mukhkh!" [No brains!] the boy answered, grinning and
+tapping his own forehead.  "Magnoon!" [Mad!]
+
+"I think I can trust them both," said Grim, smiling in my
+direction.  "All right, old man;  time out!  If you'd spoken once
+there'd have been nothing more between you and a life of safety
+and respectability!"
+
+"Whereas," said Templeton, "you may now be unsafe and an outlaw
+and enjoy yourself!  Are you sure they haven't marked him?" he
+asked Grim.
+
+"Sure!  Why should they suspect a tourist?  But I've taken
+precautions.  Word is on the way to the hotel to forward all his
+mail to Jaffa until further notice."  He laughed at me again.  "I
+hope you're not expecting important letters!"
+
+Suliman had evidently been well schooled in advance, for at a nod
+from Grim he came over and took my hand, as if I were blind in
+addition to the other supposed infirmities.  He led me out by a
+back-door, across a yard into an alley, which we followed as far
+as a main road and then turned toward the Jaffa Gate.  Looking
+back once I saw Grim in his Shereefian uniform striding along
+behind us;  but where the road forked he took the other turning.
+
+There is contentment in walking disguised through crowded
+streets, even when you are in tow of eight-year-old iniquity that
+regards you as a lump of baggage to be pushed this and that way.
+Suliman plainly considered me a rank outsider, only admitted into
+the game on sufferance.  Having said I was "magnoon" he lived up
+to the assertion, and warned people to make way for me if they
+did not want to be bitten and go mad, too;  so as a general rule
+I received a pretty wide berth.  But it was fun, in spite of
+Suliman.  It was like seeing the world through a peep-hole.  Men
+and women you knew went by without suspecting they were
+recognized, and in a puzzling sort of way the world, that had
+been your world yesterday, seemed now to belong wholly to other
+people, while you lived in a new sphere of your own.
+
+We had to go slowly as we approached the Jaffa Gate, for the
+crowd was dense there, and a line of Sikhs was drawn across the
+gap where the street passes through the city wall.  It was the
+gap the Turks once made by tearing down the wall to let the
+Kaiser through, when he made that famous meek and humble
+pilgrimage of his.  The Sikhs were searching all comers for
+weapons, and we had to wait our turn.
+
+Outside the gate, on the left-hand as you faced it, was the usual
+line of boot-blacks--the only cheap thing left in Jerusalem--a
+motley two dozen of ex-Turkish soldiers, recently fighting the
+British gamely in the last ditch, and now blacking their boots
+with equal gusto, for rather higher pay.  Some of them still wore
+Turkish uniforms.  Two or three were redheaded and blue-eyed, and
+almost certainly descended from Scotch crusaders.  (The whole
+wide world bears witness that when the Scots went soldiering they
+were efficient in more ways than one.)
+
+The rest of the crowd were mainly peasantry with basket-loads of
+stuff for market;  but there was a liberal sprinkling among them
+of all the odds and ends of the Levant, with a Jew here and
+there, the inevitable Russian priest, and a dozen odd lots,
+of as many nationalities, whom it would have been difficult
+to classify.
+
+And there was Police Constable Bedreddin Shah.  You could not
+have missed noticing him, although I did not learn his name until
+afterwards.  He came swaggering down the Jaffa Road with all the
+bullying arrogance of the newly enlisted Arab policeman.  He
+shoved me aside, calling me a name that a drunken donkey-driver
+would hesitate to apply to a dog in the gutter.  He was on his
+way to the lock-up that stands just inside the gate, and I wished
+him a year in it.
+
+As he plunged into the crowd that checked and surged immediately
+in front of the line of Sikhs, a small man in Arab costume with
+the lower part of his face well covered by the kaffiyi,* rushed
+out from the corner behind the bootblacks and drove a long knife
+home to the hilt between the policeman's shoulder-blades.  I
+wasn't shocked.  I wasn't even sorry. [*Head-dress that hangs
+down over the shoulders.]
+
+Bedreddin Shah shrieked and fell forward.  Blood gushed from the
+wound.  The crowd surged in curiously, and then fell back before
+the advancing Sikhs.  A British officer who had heard the
+victim's cry came spurring his horse into the crowd from inside
+the gate.  In his effort to get near the victim he only added to
+the confusion.
+
+The murderer, who seemed in no particular hurry, dodged quietly
+in and out among the swarm of bewildered peasants, and in thirty
+seconds had utterly disappeared.  A minute later I saw Grim
+offering his services as interpreter and stooping over the dying
+man to try to catch the one word he was struggling to repeat.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Fourteen
+
+"Windy bellies without hearts in them."
+
+
+Djemal's coffee shop is run by a Turkish gentleman whose real
+name is Yussuf.  One name, and the shorter the better, had been
+plenty in the days when Djemal Pasha ran Jerusalem with iron
+ruthlessness, and consequent success of a certain sort.  When
+Djemal was the Turkish Governor, every proprietor of every kind
+of shop had to stand in the doorway at attention whenever Djemal
+passed, and woe betide the laggard!
+
+It would not have paid any one, in those days, to name any sort
+of shop after Djemal Pasha.  Even the provider of the rope that
+throttled the offender would have made no profit, because the
+rope would simply have been looted from the nearest store.
+The hangman would have been the nearest soldier, whose pay
+was already two years in arrears.  So Yussuf's own name done
+in Turkish characters used to stand over the door before the
+British came.
+
+It was Djemal Pasha's considered judgment that Yussuf cooked the
+best coffee in Jerusalem.  So whenever the despot was in the city
+he conferred on Yussuf the inestimable privilege of supplying him
+with coffee at odd moments, under threat of the bastinado if the
+stuff were not suitably sweet and hot.  The only money that ever
+changed hands in that connection was when the tax-gatherer came
+down on Yussuf for an extra levy, because of the added trade that
+conceivably might be expected to accrue through the advertisement
+obtained by serving such an exalted customer.  The tax-gatherer
+also threatened the bastinado;  and as the man who likes that
+punishment, or who could soften the heart of a Turkish tax
+assessor, has yet to be discovered, Yussuf invariably paid.
+
+But when Allenby conquered Palestine between bouts of trying to
+tame his Australians, and Djemal Pasha scooted hot-foot into
+exile with a two-hundred-woman harem packed in lorries at his
+rear, Yussuf remembered that old adage about better late than
+never.  He put Djemal's name on the stone arch of the narrow door
+near the foot of David Street.  He did it partly out of the
+disrespect that a small dog feels for a big one that is now on
+chain;  but he was not overlooking the business value of it.
+
+The first result was that he did quite a lot of trade with
+British officers, who came primarily because they were sick of
+eating sand and bully-beef, and drinking sand and tepid water in
+the desert.  Later they flocked there by way of paying indirect
+homage to a governor who, whatever his obvious demerits, had at
+any rate never been answered back or thwarted with impunity.
+(There was a time, after the capture of Jerusalem, when if the
+British army could have voted on it, Djemal Pasha would have been
+brought back and given a free hand.)
+
+But the officers began to discover that Yussuf was charging them
+four or five times the proper price.  The seniors objected
+promptly, and deserted, to the inexpressible delight of the
+subalterns;  but even the under-paid extravagant youths grew
+tired of extortion after a month or two, and Yussuf had to look
+elsewhere for customers.
+
+Yussuf did some thinking behind that genial Turkish mask of his.
+Competition was keen.  There are more coffee shops in Jerusalem
+than hairs on a hog's back, and the situation, down near the
+bottom of that narrow thoroughfare in the shadow of an ancient
+arch, did not lend itself to drawing crowds.
+
+But there were others in Jerusalem besides the British officers
+who yearned for Djemal's rule again;  and, unlike the irreverent
+men in khaki, they did not dare to voice their feelings in
+public.  All the old political grafters, and all the would-be new
+ones savagely resented a regime under which bribery was not
+permitted;  and, as always happens sooner or later, they began to
+show a tendency to meet in certain places, where they might talk
+violence without risk of incurring it.
+
+So Yussuf permitted a rumour to gain ground that he, too, was a
+malcontent and that the British had deserted his coffee shop for
+that reason.  He gave out that Djemal Pasha's name over the door
+stood for reaction and political intrigue.  So his place began to
+be frequented by effendis in tarboosh and semi-European clothes,
+who could chew the cud of bitterness aloud between walls that the
+crusaders had built four feet thick.  The only entrance was
+through the narrow front door, where Yussuf inspected every
+visitor before admitting him.
+
+So Yussuf's "Cafe Djemal Pasha" was the place to go to for
+politics, of the red-hot, death-and-dynamite order that would
+make Lenin and Trotsky sound like small-town sports.  But first
+you had to get by Yussuf at the door.
+
+Suliman led me by the hand down David Street, through the smelly-
+yelly moil of flies and barter, past the meat and vegetable
+stalls, beneath the crusader arches from which Jewish women
+peered through trellised windows, across three transversing lanes
+of the ancient suku,* and halted at Yussuf's door.  [*Bazaar]
+
+He rapped on it three times.  When Yussuf's wrinkled face
+appeared at last Suliman demanded to see Staff-Captain Ali Mirza.
+Yussuf's blood-shot eyes peered at me for a long time before he
+asked a question.
+
+"Atrash!--akras!--majnoon!!" [Deaf!--Dumb!--Mad!!] said Suliman.
+Describing me as mad seemed to give him particular delight.  He never
+overlooked a chance of doing it.
+
+"Staff-Captain Ali Mirza is not here.  What should a Madman want
+with him?"
+
+"He is not very mad--only stupid.  He carries a message for
+the captain."
+
+"But the captain is not here.  He has not been here."
+
+"He will come."
+
+"How should a deaf-and-dumb man deliver a message?"
+
+"It is in writing."
+
+"Very well.  He may leave the writing with me.  If the captain
+comes I will deliver it."
+
+"No. The message is from Esh-Sham (Damascus).  He will give it
+only into the captain's own hand."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Suliman."
+
+"What is his?"
+
+"God knows!  He came with another man by train;  and the other
+man, who is much more mad than this one, gave me five piastres to
+bring this one to your kahwi!"  [Coffe-pot]
+
+Yussuf shut the door, and discussed the proposition with his
+customers.  At the end of two or three minutes his head
+appeared again.
+
+"You say Staff-Captain Ali Mirza is expected here?"
+
+"So said the man at the station."
+
+"What do you know of Staff-Captain Ali Mirza?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+Once more the door closed and I could hear the murmur of
+voices inside--but only a confused murmur, for the door was
+thick.  When it opened again two other heads were peering
+from behind Yussuf's.
+
+"Has he money?" he asked.
+
+"Kif?  Ma indi khabar!" [How should I know?]
+
+Yussuf opened the door wide and made a sign for me to enter.  He
+seemed in two minds whether to let Suliman come in with me or
+not, but finally admitted him with a gruff admonition to keep
+still in one place and not talk.
+
+The place was fairly full.  It was a square room, with one window
+high in the wall on David Street.  Around three sides, including
+that on which was the front door, ran a wooden seat furnished
+with thin cushions.  Facing the front door was another one
+leading to a dark hole in the rear, where pots were washed and
+rice was boiled;  beside that door, occupying most of the length
+of the fourth wall, was a thing like an altar of dressed stone,
+on which the coffee was prepared in dozens of little copper pots.
+
+The benches being pretty well occupied, I was about to squat down
+on the floor, but they made room for me close to the front door,
+so I squatted on the corner of the bench and tucked my legs under
+me.  Suliman dropped down on the floor in front of me with his
+head about level with my knees.
+
+The other occupants of the room were all Syrian Arabs--not a
+Bedouin among them.  All of them wore more or less European
+clothing, with the inevitable tarboosh, each set at a different
+angle.  You can guess the mentality of the Syrian by the angle of
+that red Islamic symbol he wears on his head.  The black tassel
+normally hangs behind, and the steady-going conservatives and all
+who take their religion seriously, wear the inverted flower-pot-
+shaped affair as nearly straight up as the cranium permits.
+
+But once let a Syrian take up new politics, join the Young Turk
+Party, forswear religion, or grow cynical about accepted
+doctrine, and the angle of his tarboosh shows it, just as surely
+as the angle of the London Cockney's "bowler" betrays irreverence
+and the New York gangster's "lid" expresses self-contempt
+disguised as self-esteem.
+
+The head-gears were set at every possible angle in that coffee-
+shop of Yussuf's, from the backward tilt of the breezy optimist
+to the far-forward thrust down over the eye of malignant
+cynicism, which usually went with folded arms, legs thrust out
+straight, and heels together on the floor.
+
+Yussuf brought me coffee without waiting to be asked.  I paid him
+a half-piastre for it, which is half the proper price, and
+utterly ignored his expostulation.  He touched me on the
+shoulder, displayed the coin in the palm of his hand and went
+through a prodigious pantomime.  I did not even try to appear
+interested.  He ordered Suliman to explain to me.
+
+"Mafish mukhkh!" said the boy, touching his own forehead.
+
+My real motive was to act as differently as possible from the
+white man, who always pays twice what he should.  By establishing
+the suggestion of accustomed meanness, I hoped to offset any
+breaks I might make presently.  Spies, and people of that kind,
+usually have plenty of money for their needs, so that by acting
+the part of a man unused to spending except in minute driblets I
+stood a better chance of not being detected.
+
+But I was in luck.  I have often noticed, so that it has become
+almost an article of creed with me, that luck invariably breaks
+that way.  It almost never turns up blind.  You sit down and wait
+for luck, and it all goes to the other fellow.  But start to use
+your wits, even clumsily, and the luck comes along and squanders
+itself on you.
+
+"He is certainly from Damascus," laughed one of the customers.
+"The price is a half-piastre in Damascus at the meaner shops."
+
+I did not know anything about Damascus then--had never been
+there;  but from that minute it never entered the mind of one of
+those men to doubt that Damascus was my home-city, so easily
+satisfied by trifling suggestions is the unscientific human.
+Yussuf went back to his charcoal stove grumbling to himself
+in Turkish.
+
+But there was still one question in doubt.  They seemed satisfied
+that I was really deaf and dumb, but in that land of countless
+mission schools and alien speech there is always a chance that
+even children know a word or two of French.  They tested Suliman
+with simple questions, such as who was his mother and where was
+he born;  but he did not need to act that part, he was utterly
+ignorant of French.
+
+So they proceeded to ignore the two of us and turn their
+political acrimony loose in French, discussing the maddest, most
+unmoral schemes with the gusto of small boys playing pirates.
+There seemed to be almost as many rival political parties as men
+in the room.  The only approach to unity was when they agreed to
+accuse and destroy.  As for constructive agreement, they had
+none, and every one's suggestion for improvement was sneered at
+by all the rest.  They were not even agreed about the Zionists,
+except hating them;  they quarreled about what would be the
+best way to take advantage of them before wiping them out
+of existence.
+
+But they all saw exquisite humour in the item of news that
+Eisernstein had taken so to heart.
+
+"That was Noureddin Ali's idea!  He is a genius!  To accuse the
+Zionists of offering two million pounds for the Dome of the
+Rock--ah! who else could have thought of it!  The story has spread
+all through Jerusalem, and is on its way to the villages.  In two
+days it will be common gossip from Damascus to Beersheba.  In a
+week it will be known from end to end of Egypt;  then Arabia;
+then India!  Ho!  When the Indian Moslems get the news--the
+Indian troops in Palestine will send it by mail--then what a
+furor!  Then what anger!  That was finesse!  That was true
+statesmanship!  Never was a shrewder genius than Noureddin Ali!"
+
+"Don't shout his name too loud," said somebody.  "The
+Administration suspects him already."
+
+"Bah!  Who in this room is a friend of the Administration?  The
+Administrator is a broken shard;  the British will summon him
+home for inefficiency.  Besides, there is only one man in
+Jerusalem of whom Noureddin is in the least afraid--that Major
+Grim, the American.  And whoever would give the price of a cup of
+coffee for a lease of the life of Major Grim in the circumstances
+would do better to toss the money to the first beggar he meets!"
+
+"Hssh!"
+
+"Hah!  All the same, I would not choose to be Noureddin's enemy."
+
+"There is another one who will share that opinion--or so I have
+heard.  I was told that Bedreddin Shah, a recent recruit in the
+police, stumbled by accident on certain evidence and demanded a
+huge sum for silence.  Hee-hee!  How much will anybody give
+Bedreddin Shah for his prospect?"
+
+"Hssh!"
+
+"What did Bedreddin Shah discover?"
+
+"Nobody knows."
+
+"You mean nobody will tell."
+
+"The same thing."
+
+"How long could a secret be kept in Jerusalem, if you people were
+informed of what is going on?  You are good for propaganda, that
+is all!  You can talk--Allah! how you all talk!  But as for doing
+anything, or keeping a secret until a thing is done, you are no
+better than magpies."
+
+The last speaker was a rather fat man, over in the corner by the
+scullery door.  He had a nose like Sultan Abdul Hamid's and
+large, elongated eyes that looked capable of seeing things on
+either side of him while he stared straight forward.  Even in
+that dark corner you could see they had the alligator-hue that
+one associates with cruelty.  He had the massive shoulders and
+forward-stooping position as he sat cross-legged on the seat that
+suggest deliberate purpose devoid of hurry.
+
+They all resented what he said, but none seemed disposed to
+quarrel with him.  One or two remonstrated mildly, but he ignored
+their remarks, busying himself with digging out a cigarette from
+a gold case set with jewels;  after he had lighted it very
+thoughtfully and examined the end once or twice to make sure that
+it burned just right, he let it hang between his lips in a way
+that accentuated the angle of his bulbous nose.  You wondered
+whether he owned a harem, and what the ladies thought of him.
+
+"Will you sit and brag in here all day?" he asked after a few
+minutes.  "Yussuf must be getting rich, you sip so much coffee.
+It is not particularly good for Yussuf to get rich;  it will make
+him lazy, as most of you are."
+
+The chattering had ceased, although there were several attempts
+to break that uncomfortable silence with inane remarks.  His
+ravenish, unpleasant voice seemed to act on the company like a
+chill wind, depriving treason of its warm sociableness but
+leaving in the sting.
+
+"I said you are good for propaganda," he resumed, tossing away
+ash with a reflective air.  "But even that has no value within
+four walls.  If Noureddin Ali should come and learn from me how
+much talking has been done in here, and how little done outside,
+I can imagine he will not be pleased.  Are there no other
+kahawi?*  Why is that story about the Zionists and their offer to
+buy the Dome of Rock not being spread diligently?  You like the
+safety of this place with its four thick walls.  But I tell you
+the jackal has to leave his hole to hunt." [*Coffee-shops]
+
+They did not like taking orders, even when they were expressed
+more or less indirectly;  no follower of the new political
+freedom does like it, for it rather upsets the new conceit.  But
+he evidently knew his politicians, and they him.  They got up one
+by one and made for the door, each offering a different excuse
+designed to cover up obedience under a cloak of snappy independence.
+Not one of them drew a retort from him, or as much as a farewell nod.
+
+When the last one was gone, and the process took up all of half-
+an-hour, he sat and looked down his nose at me for several
+minutes without speaking.  You could have guessed just as easily
+what an alligator was thinking about, and I tried to emulate him,
+pretending to go off into the brown study that the Turks call
+kaif, out of which it is considered bad manners to disturb your
+best friend, let alone a stranger.  But manners proved to be no
+barrier in his case.
+
+He began talking to me in Arabic--directly at me, slowly and
+deliberately, but I did not understand very much of it and it was
+not difficult to pretend I did not hear.  However, Suliman was in
+different case;  the boy began to get very restless under the
+monolog, and I tugged at his back hair more than once to remind
+him of the part he had to play.
+
+Discovering that the Arabic took no effect on me, the alligator
+person changed to French.
+
+"They speak French in Damascus.  I know you are not deaf.  You
+are a spy.  I know your name.  I know what your business was
+before you came here.  I know why you want to see the staff-
+captain.  You have a letter for him;  I know what is in it.   No
+use trying to deceive me;  I have ways of my own of discovering
+things.  Do you know what happens to spies who refuse to answer
+my questions?  They are attended to.  Quite simple.  They receive
+attention.  Nobody hears of them again.
+
+"There are drains in Jerusalem--big, dark, smelly, ancient, full
+of rats--very useful drains.  You think the Staff-Captain Ali
+Mirza will protect you.  At a word from me he will make the
+request that you receive immediate attention.  You will disappear
+down a drain, where even Allah will forget that you ever existed.
+Staff-Captain Ali Mirza is my old friend.  Better let me see
+that letter."
+
+I felt like laughing at the drain threats although Suliman was
+still shivering from the effect of the earlier Arabic version.
+But the statement that he knew the real Ali Mirza might be true,
+in which case Grim's disguise was not going to last long.
+However, the fact that he had not yet seen through my disguise
+was some comfort.  The wish being father of the thought, I
+decided he was bluffing first and last.  But he had not finished
+yet.  He tried me in English.
+
+"The captain will give that letter to me in any case.  It is
+intended for me.  I have other business now, and wish to save
+time, so give it to me at once.  Here, I will give you ten
+piastres for it."
+
+He pulled out a purse and unfolded a ten-piastre note.  I took no
+notice.  He shook it for me to see, and I awoke like a pelican at
+the sight of fish.
+
+"Yours for that letter," he said, shaking it again.
+
+I nudged Suliman and nodded to him.  He crossed the room, seized
+the ten-piastre note, and brought it back to me.  I stowed it
+away under my shirt.
+
+"Come, now give me the letter."
+
+I took utterly no notice, so he turned his attention to Suliman
+again, and resumed in Arabic.
+
+"Feel in his pocket and find the letter."
+
+"I'm afraid," the boy answered.
+
+"Of what?  Of him?  I will protect you.  Take the letter from
+him."
+
+Suliman chose to play the small boy, as he could very well indeed
+when nothing could be gained by being devilish and ultra-grown-
+up.  He shook his head and grinned sheepishly.
+
+"Has he any weapons?" was the next question.
+
+"Ma indi khabar." [I don't know.]
+
+Evidently assault and battery was to be the next item on the
+program.  He had not the eyes or the general air of a man who
+will part with ten piastres for nothing.  He called to Yussuf,
+who came hurrying out of the scullery place.  They held a
+whispered conference, and Yussuf nodded;  then he came over to
+the front door and locked it, removing the key.
+
+"Tell him to hand over that letter!" he ordered Suliman.
+
+"Mafish mukhkh!" said the boy, tapping his forehead once more.
+
+Suliman's notion was the right one after all--at any rate the
+only one available.  Old alligator rolled off his perch and
+started for me.  Yussuf timed his own assault to correspond.
+They would have landed on me simultaneously, if Suliman had not
+reminded me that madness is a safe passport nearly anywhere in
+the East.
+
+So I went stark, raving mad that minute.  I once spent a night in
+the room of an epileptic who had delirium tremens, and learned a
+lot from him;  some of it came to mind just when I needed it.  If
+ever a man got ten piastres' worth of unexpected side-show it was
+that old Syrian with the alligator eyes.  By the time I was quite
+out of breath there wasn't a cushion or a coffee-pot fit for
+business.  Suliman was standing out of reach on the bench in a
+corner yelling with laughter, while the two men struggled to get
+through the scullery door, which was too narrow to admit them
+both at once.  I earned that ten piastres.  By the same token
+I did not let the kaffiyi fall off my head and betray my
+western origin.
+
+Unable to think up any more original motions, and having breath
+for none, I sat on the floor and spat repeatedly, having seen a
+madman do that on the Hebron Road and get feared, if not
+respected for it.  There seems to be a theory prevalent in that
+part of the world that the sputum of a madman is contagious.
+
+But I overdid it.  Most amateurs do overdo things.
+
+They got so afraid that they decided to put me out into the
+street at all costs, where those enemies of society, the police,
+might demonstrate their ingenuity.  Yussuf made a dash for the
+front door, and I suppose he would have called in help and ended
+my share in the adventure, if something had not happened.
+
+The "something" was Noureddin Ali very much something in his
+own opinion.
+
+"Why didn't you open the door sooner?" he demanded.  "I have been
+knocking for two minutes."
+
+He watched Yussuf lock the door again behind him, and then eyed
+the disheveled room with amused curiosity.  He was a rat-faced
+little man dressed in a black silk jacket, worsted pants and
+brown boots, with the inevitable tarboosh set at an angle of
+sheer impudence--a man at least fifty years old by the look of
+him, but full of that peppery vigor that so often clings to
+little men in middle life.  On the whole he looked more like a
+school-teacher, or a lawyer then a conspirator;  but Yussuf
+addressed him with great deference as "Noureddin Ali Bey," and
+even old alligator-eyes became obsequious.
+
+Both Yussuf and the other man began explaining the situation to
+him in rapid-fire Arabic.  I, meanwhile, recovering from the fit
+as fast as I dared and trying to remember how to do it.
+Noureddin Ali was plainly for having me thrown out, until they
+mentioned the name of Staff-Captain Ali Mirza;  at that he tried
+to cross-examine Suliman at great length, but could get nothing
+out of him.  Suliman had evidently overheard Grim talking about
+Noureddin Ali, and was very much afraid of him.
+
+"All right," Noureddin Ali said at last.  "No more business
+today, Yussuf.  Keep the door locked, but admit the captain.  We
+must find out what this message is about."
+
+Yussuf went to tidying up the place, while Noureddin Ali and the
+alligator person talked excitedly in low tones in the corner near
+the scullery door.  I lay on the floor with one eye open,
+expecting Grim every minute;  but it must have been four in the
+afternoon before he came, and all that while, with only short
+intervals for food and coffee, Noureddin Ali and the other man
+talked steadily, discussing over and over again the details of
+some plan.
+
+Shortly after midday Suliman began to whimper for food.  Yussuf
+produced a mess of rice and mutton, of which the two Syrians ate
+enormously before giving any to the boy;  then they put what was
+left in the dish on the floor in front of me, pretty much in the
+way you feed a dog, and I hate to remember what I did to it.
+It is enough that I did not overlook Grim's advice to eat
+like a lunatic, and however suspicious of me Noureddin Ali
+might otherwise have been he was satisfied at the end of
+that performance.
+
+Several people tried the door, and some of them made signals on
+it but Yussuf had a peep-hole where one of the heavy iron nails
+had been removed, and after a cautious squint through it at each
+arrival he proceeded to ignore them.  One man thundered on the
+door for several minutes, but was allowed to go away without as
+much as a word of explanation.
+
+That was the first incident that made me feel quite sure
+Nourreddin Ali was in fear of the police.  All the time the
+thundering was going on he glanced furtively about him like a rat
+in a trap.  I saw him feel for a weapon under his arm-pit.  When
+the noise ceased and the impatient visitor went away he sighed
+with relief.  The place was certainly a trap;  there was no back
+way out of it.
+
+When Grim came at last he knocked quietly, and waited in silence
+while Yussuf applied his eye to the nail-hole.  When he entered,
+the only surprising thing about him seemed to me the thinness of
+his disguise.  In the morning, when I had seen him change in ten
+minutes from West to East, it had seemed perfect;  but, having
+looked for him so long with the Syrian disguise in mind, it
+seemed impossible now that any one could be deceived by it.  He
+was at no pains to keep the kaffiyi thing close to his face,
+and I held my breath, expecting to see Noureddin Ali denounce
+him instantly.
+
+But nothing of that sort happened.  Grim sat down, thrust his
+legs out in front of him, leaned back and called for coffee.  It
+was obvious at once that the alligator person had been lying when
+he boasted of knowing Staff-Captain Ali Mirza, for he made no
+effort to claim acquaintance or to denounce him as an impostor.
+But he nodded to Suliman, and Suliman came over and nudged me.
+
+I let the boy go through a lot of pantomimic argument before
+admitting that I understood, but finally I crossed the room to
+Grim and offered him the envelope.  He looked surprised, examined
+the outside curiously, spoke to me, shrugged his shoulders when I
+did not answer, tossed a question or two to Suliman, shrugged
+again and tore the letter open.  Then his face changed, and he
+glanced to right and left of him as if afraid of being seen.  He
+stuffed the letter into his tunic pocket and I went back to the
+corner by the front door.
+
+Yussuf was pottering about, still rearranging all the pots and
+furniture that I had scattered, but his big ears projected
+sidewise and suggested that he might have another motive.
+However, it was a simple matter to evade his curiosity by talking
+French, and Noureddin All could contain himself no longer.
+
+"Pardon me, sir?  Staff-Captain Ali Mirza?"
+
+Grim nodded suspiciously.
+
+"I have heard of you.  We have all heard of you.  We are proud to
+see you in Jerusalem.  We wish all success to your efforts on
+behalf of Mustapha Kemal, the great Turkish Nationalist leader.
+Our prayer is that he may light such a fire in Anatolia as shall
+spread in one vast conflagration throughout the East!"
+
+"Who are you?" asked Grim suspiciously.  (Evidently the real Ali
+Mirza had a reputation for gruff manners.)
+
+"Noureddin Ali Bey.  It may be you have heard of me.  I am not
+without friends in Damascus."
+
+"Oh, are you Noureddin Ali?" Grim's attitude thawed appreciably.
+"We have been looking for more action and less talk from you.  I
+made an excuse to visit Jerusalem and discover how much fire
+there is under this smoke of boasting."
+
+"Fire!  Ha-ha!  That is the right word!  There is a camouflage of
+talk, but under it--Aha!  You shall see!"
+
+"Or is that more talk?"
+
+"We are not all talkers.  Wait and see!"
+
+"Oh, more waiting?  Has Mustapha Kemal Pasha waited in Anatolia?
+Has he not set you all an example of deeds without words?  Am I
+to wait here indefinitely in Jerusalem to take him news of deeds
+that will never happen?"
+
+"Not indefinitely, my dear captain!  And this time there will
+really be a deed that will please even such a rigorous lover of
+action as Mustapha Kemal!"
+
+Grim shrugged his shoulders again.
+
+"I leave for Damascus at dawn," he said cynically.  "I don't care
+to be mocked there for bringing news of promises.  We have had
+too many of those barren mares.  I shall say that I have found
+everything here is sterile--the talk abortive--the men mere windy
+bellies without hearts in them!"
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Fifteen
+
+"I'll have nothing to do with it!"
+
+
+Noureddin Ali was pained and upset.  Grim had pricked his
+conceit--had sent thrust home where he kept his susceptibilities.
+He blinked, peered this and that way, exchanged glances with the
+alligator person, and then tucked his legs up under him.
+
+"In me you see a doer!" he announced.  He looked the part.  His
+lean, pointed nose and beady little eyes were of the interfering,
+meddling type.  You could not imagine him, like the yellow-eyed
+ruminant next to him, sitting and waiting ruthlessly for things
+to happen.  Noureddin Ali looked more likely to go out and
+be ruthless.
+
+"So they all say!" Grim retorted.
+
+"Some one should forewarn them in Damascus what a deed will occur
+here presently.  Above all, word should reach Mustapha Kemal, in
+Anatolia, as soon as possible, so that he may be ready to act."
+
+"All day long," said Grim, "I have wandered about Jerusalem,
+listening to this and that rumour of something that may happen.
+But I have not found one man who can tell me a fact."
+
+"That is because you did not meet me.  I am--hee-hee!  I am the
+father of facts.  You say you leave for Damascus at dawn?  You
+are positive?  I could tell you facts that would put a sudden end
+to my career if they were spread about Jerusalem!"
+
+"That is the usual boast of men who desire credit in the eyes of
+the Nationalist Party," Grim retorted.
+
+"I see you are skeptical.  That is a wise man's attitude, but I
+must be cautious, for my life is at stake.  Now--how do you
+propose to leave Jerusalem?  There is no train for Damascus at
+dawn tomorrow."
+
+"I am on a diplomatic mission," answered Grim.  "The
+Administration have placed a car at my disposal to take me as far
+as the border."
+
+"Ah!  And tonight?  Where will you be tonight?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I propose to make a disclosure.  And--ah--hee-hee!--you
+would like to live, I take it, and not be sent back to Damascus
+in a coffin?  I have--ah--some assistants who--hee-hee!--would
+watch your movements.  If you were to betray me afterwards to the
+Administration, there would remain at least--the satisfaction--
+of--you understand me?--the certainty that you would suffer
+for it!"
+
+Grim laughed dryly.
+
+"I shall be at the hotel," he answered.  "In bed.  Asleep.  The
+car comes before dawn."
+
+"That is sufficient.  I shall know how to take essential
+precautions.  Now--you think I am a man of words, not deeds?  You
+were near the Jaffa Gate this morning, for I saw you there.  You
+saw a man killed--a policeman, name Bedreddin.  That was an
+unwise underling, who stumbled by accident on a clue to what I
+shall tell you presently.  He had the impudence to try to
+blackmail me--me, of all people!  You saw him killed.  But did
+you see who killed him?  I--I killed him, with this right hand!
+You do not believe?  You think, perhaps, I lack the strength for
+such a blow?  Look here, where the force of it broke my skin on
+the handle of the knife!  Now, am I a man of words, not deeds?"
+
+"You want me to report to Mustapha Kemal that all the
+accomplishment in Jerusalem amounts to one policeman killed?"
+
+"No, no!  You mistake my meaning.  My point is that having proved
+to you I am a ruthless man of action, I am entitled to be
+believed when I tell you what next I intend to do."
+
+"Well--I  listen."
+
+"There is going to be--hee-hee!--an explosion!"
+
+"Where?  When?  Of what?"
+
+"In Jerusalem, within a day or two, and of what?  Why, of high
+explosive, what else?"
+
+"Much good an explosion in this city will do Mustapha Kemal!"
+Grim grumbled.  "You may kill a few beggars and break some
+windows.  The British will double the guards afterward at all the
+city gates, and that will be the end of it;  except that some of
+you, who perhaps may escape being thrown into jail, will apply to
+Mustapha Kemal for high commissions in his army on the strength
+of it!  Great doings!  Mustapha Kemal will have no bastinadoed."
+
+"Hee-hee!  You are going to be surprised.  What would you say to
+an explosion, for instance, that destroyed the Dome of the Rock?"
+
+"That might accomplish results."
+
+"Hee-hee!  You admit it!  An explosion to be blamed on the
+Zionists, who must afterward be protected by the British from the
+mob!  Would that not set India on fire?"
+
+"It might help.  But who is to do it?"
+
+"You see the doer before you!  I will do it."
+
+"If I thought such a thing was really going to take place--"
+
+"You would think that news worth carrying, eh?  You would hurry
+to Damascus, wouldn't you?  And let me assure you, my dear
+captain, speed is essential.  There are reasons why the explosion
+has not yet occurred--reasons of detail and difficulties to be
+overcome.  But now there is little further prospect of delay.
+Everything is nearly ready.  The explosive is not yet in place,
+but is at hand.  The authorities suspect nothing.  There remains
+only a little excavation work, and then--hee-hee!--nothing to do
+but choose the hour when hundreds are in the mosque.  Houp-la!
+Up she goes.  Does not the idea appeal to you?"
+
+"Sensational--very," Grim admitted.
+
+"Ah!  But the utmost must be made of the sensation.  Men must be
+ready in Damascus to stir public feeling on the strength of it.
+Word must go to Mustapha Kemal to strike hard while the iron is
+hot.  There must be reprisals everywhere.  Blood must flow.
+
+"The Europeans, French as well as British, must be goaded into
+making rash mistakes that will further inflame the populace.  It
+must be shouted from the house-tops that the Jews have blown up a
+Moslem sacred place, and that the British are protecting them.
+There must be a true jihad* proclaimed against all non-Moslems
+almost simultaneously everywhere.  Do you understand now how
+swiftly you must travel to Damascus?" [*Holy war.]
+
+Grim nodded.  "Yet these foreigners are cunning," he said
+doubtfully.  "Are you sure your plan is not suspected?"
+
+"Quite sure.  There was one man--a cursed interfering jackanapes
+of an American, whom they all call Jimgrim, of whom I was afraid.
+He is clever.  He goes snooping here and there, and knows how to
+disguise himself.  But he fell downstairs this morning and broke
+his thigh in two places.  If anything could make me religious,
+that would!  If I were not a nationalist, I would say 'Glory
+to God, and blessed be His Prophet, who has smitten him whom
+we feared!"'
+
+"That broken leg might be a trick to put you off your guard,"
+Grim suggested pleasantly.
+
+"No.  I made secret enquiries.  He is in great pain.  He may lose
+the leg.  The doctor who has charge of the case is a Major
+Templeton, an irritable person and, like most of the English, too
+big a fool to deceive anybody.  No, luckily for Mister Jimgrim it
+is not a trick.  Otherwise he would have shared the fate today of
+Bedreddin Shah the constable.  The trap was all ready for him.
+With the inquisitive and really clever out of the way there is
+nothing to be feared.  Now--pardon me, Captain Ali Mirza, but
+that letter you received just now;  would you like to show it
+to me?"
+
+"Why?" Grim demanded, frowning, and bridling all over.
+
+"Hee-hee!  For the sake of reciprocity.  I have told you my
+secret.  If it were not that I am more than usually circumspect,
+and accustomed to protect myself, one might say that my life is
+now in your hands, captain.  Besides--hee-hee!--I might add that
+Jerusalem is my particular domain.  I would have no difficulty in
+seeing that letter in any case.  But there should be no need for
+--hee-hee!--shall we call them measures?--between friends."
+
+"I see you are a man of resource," said Grim.
+
+"Of great resource, with picked lieutenants.  May I see the
+letter now?"
+
+Grim produced it.  Noureddin Ali took it between spidery fingers
+and examined it like a schoolmaster conning a boy's composition.
+But the expression of his face changed as he took in the
+contents, holding the paper so that alligator-eyes could read
+it, too.
+
+"Who wrote this?" he asked.
+
+"Can't you read the signature?  Enver Eyub."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"One of Mustapha Kemal's staff."
+
+"So.  'In pursuing your mission you will also take steps to
+ascertain whether or not Noureddin Ali Bey is a person worthy of
+confidence.'  Aha!  That is excellent!  So Mustapha Kemal Pasha
+has heard of me?"
+
+Grim nodded.
+
+"And the rest of your mission?"
+
+"Is confidential."
+
+"And are you satisfied that I am to be trusted?"
+
+"I think you mean business."
+
+"Then you should tell me what is the nature of your secret
+mission to Jerusalem.  Possibly I can give you needed information.
+If you have obtained information of value, you should confide in
+me.  I can be most useful when I know most."
+
+Grim frowned.  He began to look uneasy.  And the more he did that,
+the more delight Noureddin Ali seemed to take in questioning him,
+but be pleaded his own case, too.
+
+"The trouble with the Nationalist movement," he insisted, "is
+lack of unity.  There is no mutual confidence--consequently no
+combination.  There are too many intellects working at cross
+purposes.  You should tell me what is being done, so that I may
+fit in my plans accordingly.  When the Dome of the Rock has been
+blown up there will be ample opportunity for putting into
+execution a combined plan.  You must confide in me."
+
+"Suppose I get rid of that messenger and the boy first,"
+Grim suggested.
+
+Grim felt in his pocket and produced a purse full of bank notes.
+But they were all big ones.
+
+"Never mind, I have change," said Noureddin Ali.  "How much will
+you give him?"
+
+"No," said Grim.  "The boy can take him to the hotel.  Let him
+wait for me there.  He has no further business here.  He should
+return to Damascus.  He had better travel with me in the car
+tomorrow morning.  Take him to the hotel, and wait for me there,
+you," he added in Arabic to Suliman.
+
+Yussuf came and opened the door.  Suliman took my hand and led me
+out.  The door slammed shut behind me, and a great Sikh, leaning
+on his rifle at a corner thirty feet away, came to life just
+sufficiently to follow me up-street with curious brown eyes.
+
+"That is Narayan Singh," announced Suliman when we had passed
+him.  "He is Jimgrim's friend."
+
+There was another Sikh just in sight of him at the next corner,
+and another beyond him again, all looking rather bored but
+awfully capable.  None except the first one took the slightest
+notice of us.
+
+It was some consolation to know that "Jimgrim's friend" was on
+guard outside Yussuf's.  I had no means of knowing what weapons
+Grim carried, if any, but was positive of one thing:  if either
+Noureddin Ali or the man with alligator eyes should get an
+inkling of his real identity his life would not be worth ten
+minutes' purchase.  Including Yussuf, who would likely do as he
+was told, there would be three to one between those silent walls,
+and it seemed to me that Narayan Singh might as well be three
+miles away as thirty feet.  However, there was nothing I could do
+about it.
+
+It was late afternoon already, and the crowd was swarming all one
+way, the women carrying the baskets and the men lording it near
+enough to keep an eye on them.  If Suliman and I were followed,
+whoever had that job had his work cut out, for we were swallowed
+up in a noisy stream of home-going villagers, whose baskets and
+other burdens made an effectual screen behind us as well as
+in front.
+
+The hotel stands close by the Jaffa Gate, and there the crowd was
+densest, for the outgoing swarm was met by another tide, of city-
+folk returning.  In the mouth of the hotel arcade stood an
+officer whom I knew well enough by sight--Colonel Goodenough,
+commander of the Sikhs, a quiet, gray little man with a monocle,
+and that air of knowing his own mind that is the real key to
+control of Indian troops.  Up a side-street there were a dozen
+troop-horses standing, and a British subaltern was making himself
+as inconspicuous as he could in the doorway of a store.  It did
+not need much discernment to judge that those in authority were
+ready to deal swiftly with any kind of trouble.
+
+But the only glimpse I had of any mob-spirit stirring was when
+three obvious Zionist Jews were rather roughly hustled by some
+Hebron men, who pride themselves on their willingness to brawl
+with any one.  Two Sikhs interfered at once, and Goodenough, who
+was watching, never batted an eyelash.
+
+I was tired, wanted a whiskey and soda and a bath more than
+anything else I could imagine at the moment.  I was eager to get
+to my room in the hotel.  Suliman, being not much more than a
+baby after all, wanted to go to sleep.  We went past Goodenough,
+who eyed me sharply but took no further notice, and we entered
+the hotel door.  But there we were met by Cerberus in the shape
+of an Arab porter, who cursed our religion and ordered us out
+again, threatening violence if we did not make haste.
+
+Suliman argued with him in vain, and even whimpered.  There was
+nothing for it but to return to the arcade, where I sat down on a
+step, from which a native policeman drove me away officiously.  I
+had about made up my mind to go and speak to Goodenough in
+English, when Grim appeared.  Not even Goodenough recognized him,
+his Syrian stride was so well acted.  He saluted, and the salute
+was returned punctiliously but with that reserve toward a
+foreigner that the Englishman puts on unconsciously.  When Grim
+spoke to him in Arabic Goodenough answered in the same language.
+I did not hear what was said at first, but as I drew closer I
+heard the sequel, for Grim changed suddenly to English.
+
+"If you can't recognize me through that magnifying-glass of
+yours, colonel, I must be one leopard who can really change his
+spots.  I'm Grim.  Don't change your expression.  Quick:  look
+around and tell me if I'm followed."
+
+"Hard to say.  Such a crowd here.  There's a Syrian over the way
+with a bulbous nose, who came along after you;  he's leaning with
+his back to the wall now, watching us."
+
+"He's the boy."
+
+"I see Narayan Singh has left his post.  Did you give
+him orders?"
+
+"Yes.  Told him to follow any one who followed me.  I don't want
+that fellow interfered with.  He may stay there, or more likely
+he'll call others to take his place;  they'll watch all night, if
+they're allowed to;  let them.  Wish you'd give orders they're to
+be left alone.  Then, please let Narayan Singh go off duty and
+get some sleep;  I'm going to want him all day tomorrow."
+
+"All right, Grim;  anything else?"
+
+"First opportunity, I wish you'd come to Davey's room upstairs.
+Now--long distance stuff again, sir--if any Syrian asks you about
+me, you might say I was making sure the car would come for me
+at dawn."
+
+They exchanged salutes again as one suspicious alien to another.
+Grim looked suitably surprised at sight of me, and led me and
+Suliman back to the hotel, where Suliman wanted him to wreak dire
+vengeance on the porter;  he grew sulky when he discovered that
+his influence with Grim was not sufficient for the purpose, but
+forgot it, small boy fashion, ten minutes later, when he fell
+asleep on the floor in a corner of Davey's room.
+
+Davey did not look exactly pleased to see us, although he seemed
+to like Grim personally, and was the first that day to see
+through Grim's disguise at the first glance.  Mrs. Davey, on the
+other hand, was radiant with smiles--thrilled at the prospect of
+learning secrets.  She produced drinks and pushed the armchairs
+up.  When she learned who I was, her husband could hardly keep
+her from putting on a costume too, to make a party of it.
+
+Davey was reserved.  He asked no questions.  A gray-headed, gray-
+eyed, stocky, sturdy-looking man, who had made impossibilities
+come true on three continents, he waited for trouble to come to
+him instead of seeking it.  There was silence for several minutes
+over the cigars and whiskey before Grim opened fire at last.  He
+talked straight out in front of Mrs. Davey, for she had mothered
+Cosmopolitan Oil men in a hundred out-of-the-way places.  She
+knew more sacred secrets than the Sphinx.
+
+"Any news about your oil concessions, Davey?"
+
+"No.  Not a word.  We've got every prospect in the country marked
+out.  Nothing to do now but wait for the mandate, while the
+Zionists go behind our backs to the Foreign Office and scheme for
+the concessions.  It's my belief the British mean to favor the
+Zionists and put us in the ditch.  The fact that we were first on
+the ground, and lodged our applications with the Turks before the
+war seems to make no difference in their lives."
+
+"Well, old man, I've arranged for you to change your policy,"
+said Grim.
+
+"What in thunder do you mean?"
+
+Mrs. Davey giggled with delight, but her husband
+frowned ominously.
+
+"I'm supposed to be Staff-Captain Ali Mirza of the
+Shereefian army."
+
+"I've heard of him.  He's a bad one, Jim.  He is one of those
+Syrian Arabs who will accept any one's money, but who never stays
+bought.  Why masquerade as a scoundrel?"
+
+"I was in a place just now with a bunch of murderers, who'd have
+made short work of me if I couldn't give them a sound reason for
+being in Jerusalem just now."
+
+"Why not have 'em all arrested?"
+
+"For the same reason, Davey, that your Oil Company isn't piping
+ten thousand barrels a day from Jericho.  The time is not yet.
+Things haven't reached that stage.  I told them your Oil Company
+gave up hope long ago of getting a concession from the British,
+and has decided to finance Mustapha Kemal."
+
+Davey flung his cigar out of the window, and laid both hands on
+his knees.  His face was a picture of baffled indignation.  But
+his wife laughed.
+
+"They were tickled to death," Grim continued.  "I'm supposed to
+be going to Damascus tomorrow morning with a hundred thousand
+dollars in U.S. gold, obtained from you in ten small bags.  We've
+got to find some bags and pack them full of something heavy."
+
+"I'll have nothing to do with it!" Davey exploded at last.  "It's
+a damned outrage!  Why--this tale will be all over the place.
+The Jews will get hold of it, and make complaints in London.
+Next you know, the U.S. State Department will be raising blue
+hell.  Questions asked in Congress.  Headlines in all the papers!
+What do you suppose our people will think of me?"
+
+"Refer them to your wife, Davey.  She's got you out of much
+worse messes."
+
+"I'll drive the car straight up to OETA and lodge my protest
+against this in less than fifteen minutes!"
+
+"No need;  Davey, old man.  Goodenough will be in here presently.
+Kick to him."
+
+Mrs. Davey went into the next room and returned with a roll of
+coarse cotton cloth.
+
+"I've no bags, Jim, but if this stuff will do I can sew some
+right now."
+
+"Good enough, Emily, go to it."
+
+"D'you want to lose me my job?" demanded Davey.  But his wife
+took up the scissors and smiled back at him.
+
+"You know better than that.  We've trusted Jim before."
+
+"Listen, Davey;  this thing's serious," said Grim.
+
+"I know it is!  So'm I!  Nothing doing!"
+
+"You're on the inside of an official secret."
+
+"Curse all official secrets!  My business is oil!"
+
+"There'll be no oil in this man's land for any one for fifty
+years if you won't play.  There'll be a jihad instead.  They're
+planning to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
+
+"Jee-rusalem!"
+
+"Straight goods, Davey.  Two tons of TNT stolen, and our friend
+Scharnhoff, the Austrian, hunting for the Tomb of the Kings--
+digging for it day and night--conspirators waiting to run in the
+explosive as soon as the tunnel is complete."
+
+"Why not arrest 'em at once?"
+
+"We want to catch the principals red-handed, explosive and all.
+We don't know where the explosive is yet.  Bag the lot, and kill
+the story.  Otherwise, d'you see what it means, if the news leaks
+out?  They'll blame the attempt on the Jews.  And the minute the
+British protect the Jews there'll be all Moslem Asia on fire.
+Get me?"
+
+"Get you?  Yes, I get you.  I'll get hell from the home office,
+though, for meddling in politics."
+
+Goodenough came in then, rather a different man from the stern
+little martinet who had stood in the throat of the arcade.  He
+was all smiles.
+
+"Evening, Mrs. Davey," he said genially.  "That one man went
+away, Grim, and three took his place.  They shan't be disturbed.
+Narayan Singh has gone off duty.  Now, Mrs. Davey, I've been told
+that Americans all went dry, on account of a new religion called
+the Volstead Act.  D'you mean to say you'd tempt a thirsty
+soldier with a dry martini?"
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Sixteen
+
+"The Enemy is nearly always useful if you leave him free to
+make mistakes."
+
+
+The next item on the program was to awaken Suliman.  He did not
+want to wake up.  He had lost all interest in secret service for
+the time being.  Even the sight of Mrs. Davey's New York candy
+did not stir enthusiasm;  he declared it was stuff fit for
+bints,* not men.   [*Women]
+
+"All right then," Grim announced at last.
+
+"School for you, and I'll get another side-partner."
+
+That settled it.  The boy, on whose lips the word dog was a foul
+epithet, was actually proud to share a packing-case bedroom with
+Julius Caesar the mess bull-dog.  School, where there would be
+other iniquitous small boys to be led into trouble, had no
+particular terrors.  But to lose his job and to see another boy,
+perhaps a Jew or a Christian, become Jimgrim's Jack-of-all-jobs
+was outside the pale of inflictions that pride could tolerate.
+
+"I am awake!" he retorted, rubbing his eyes to prove it.
+
+"Come here, then.  D'you know where to find your mother?"
+
+"At the place where I went yesterday."
+
+"Take her some of Mrs. Davey's candy.  Don't eat it on the way,
+mind.  Get inside the place if you can.  If she won't let you in
+try how much you can see through the door.  Ask no questions.  If
+she asks what you've been doing, tell her the truth:  say that
+you cleaned my boots and washed Julius Caesar.  Then come back
+here and tell me all you've seen."
+
+"Sending him to spy on his own mother, Jim?" asked Mrs. Davey as
+Suliman left the room with candy in both fists.  She paused from
+stitching at the cotton bags to look straight at Grim.
+
+"His mother is old Scharnhoff's housekeeper," Grim answered.
+"Scharnhoff wouldn't stand for the boy, and drove him out.  The
+mother liked Scharnhoff's flesh-pots better than the prospects of
+the streets, so she stayed on, swiping stuff from Scharnhoff's
+larder now and then to slip to the kid through the back door.
+But he was starving when I found him."
+
+Mrs. Davey laid her sewing down.
+
+"D'you  mean to tell me that that old butter-wouldn't-melt-in-
+his-mouth professor is that child's father?"
+
+"No.  The father was a Turkish soldier--went away with the
+Turkish retreat.  If he's alive he's probably with Mustapha Kemal
+in Anatolia.  Old Scharnhoff used to keep a regular harem under
+the Turks.  He got rid of them to save his face when our crowd
+took Jerusalem.  He puts up with one now.  But he has the
+thorough-going Turk's idea of married life."
+
+"And to think I had him here to tea--twice--no, three times!  I
+liked him, too!  Found him interesting."
+
+"He is," said Grim.
+
+"Very!" agreed Goodenough.
+
+"If it weren't for that harem habit of his," said Grim, "some
+acquaintances of his would have blown up the Dome of the Rock
+about this time tomorrow.  As it is, they won't get away with
+it.  Suliman came and told me one day that his mother was
+carrying food to Scharnhoff, taking it to a little house in
+a street that runs below the Haram-es-Sheriff.  I looked into
+that.  Then came news that two tons of TNT was missing, on top
+of a request from Scharnhoff for permission to go about at night
+unquestioned.  After that it was only a question of putting
+two and two together--"
+
+"Plus Narayan Singh," said Goodenough.  "I still don't see, Grim,
+how you arrived at the conclusion that Scharnhoff is not guilty
+of the main intention.  What's to prove that he isn't in the pay
+of Mustapha Kemal?"
+
+"I'll explain.  All Scharnhoff cares about is some manuscripts he
+thinks he'll find.  He thinks he knows where they are.  The
+Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.  I expect he tried pretty hard
+to get the Turks to let him excavate for them.  But the Turks
+knew better than to offend religious prejudices.  And perhaps
+Scharnhoff couldn't afford to bribe heavily enough;  his harem
+very likely kept him rather short of money.  Then we come along,
+and stop all excavation--cancel all permits--refuse to grant
+new ones.
+
+"Scharnhoff's problem is to dig without calling attention to what
+he's doing.  As a technical enemy alien he can't acquire
+property, or even rent property without permission.  But with the
+aid of Suliman's mother he made the acquaintance of our friend
+Noureddin Ali, who has a friend, who in turn has a brother, who
+owns a little house in that street below the Haram-es-Sheriff."
+
+"Strange coincidence!" said Goodenough.  "It'll need a better
+argument than that to save Scharnhoff's neck."
+
+"Pardon me, sir.  No coincidence at all.  Remember, Scharnhoff
+has lived in Jerusalem for fifteen years.  He seems to have
+satisfied himself that the Tomb of the Kings is directly under
+the Dome of the Rock.  How is he to get to it?  The Dome of the
+Rock stands in the middle of that great courtyard, with the
+buildings of the Haram-es-Sheriff surrounding it on every
+side, and hardly a stone in the foundations weighing less than
+ten tons.
+
+"He reasons it out that there must be a tunnel somewhere, leading
+to the tomb, if it really is under the Dome of the Rock.  I have
+found out that he went to work, while the Turks were still here,
+to find the mouth of the tunnel.  Remember, he's an archaeologist.
+There's very little he doesn't know about Jerusalem.  He knows
+who the owner is of every bit of property surrounding the
+Haram-es-Sheriff;  he's made it his business to find out.  So
+when he finally decided that this little stone house stands over
+the mouth of the tunnel, all that remained to do was to get
+access to it.  He couldn't do that himself, because of the
+regulations.  He had to approach the Arab owner secretly and
+indirectly.  That's where Suliman's mother came in handy.
+
+"She contrived the introduction to Noureddin Ali.  Innocent old
+Scharnhoff, who is an honest thief--he wouldn't steal money--
+sacrilege is Scharnhoff's passion--was an easy mark for Noureddin
+Ali.  Noureddin Ali is a red-minded devil, so smart at seeing
+possibilities that he is blind to probabilities.  He is paid by
+the French to make trouble, and he's the world's long-distance
+double-crosser.  I don't believe the French have any hand in this
+job.  Scharnhoff needed explosives.  Noureddin Ali saw at once
+that if that tunnel can be found and opened up there could be
+an atrocity perpetrated that would produce anarchy all through
+the East."
+
+"As bad as all that?" asked Mrs.  Davey.
+
+"That's no exaggeration," Goodenough answered.  "I've lived
+twenty-five years in India, commanding Sikh and Moslem troops.
+The Sikhs are not interested in the Moslem religion in any way,
+but they'd make common cause with Moslems if that place were
+blown up and the blame could be attached to Jews.  It's the
+second most sacred place in Asia.  Even the Hindus would be
+stirred to their depths by it;  they'd feel that their own sacred
+places were insecure, and that whoever destroyed them would be
+protected afterwards by us."
+
+"Gosh!  Who'd be an Englishman!" laughed Davey.
+
+"I don't see that it's proved yet that the idea of an explosion
+wasn't Sharnhoff's in the first place," Goodenough objected.
+
+"For one thing, he wouldn't want to destroy antiquities," said
+Grim.  "They're his obsession.  He worships ancient history and
+all its monuments.  No, Noureddin Ali thought of the explosion.
+He knew that Scharnhoff needed money, so he gave him French
+money, knowing that would put old Scharnhoff completely in his
+power.  Then he tipped off some one down at Ludd to watch for a
+chance to steal some TNT.  He had better luck than he expected.
+He got two tons of it.  He didn't have all the luck, though.
+His plan, I believe, was to time the fireworks simultaneously
+with a French-instigated raid from El-Kerak.  But the raid
+didn't come off."
+
+"Scharnhoff will hang!" said Goodenough.
+
+"I think not, sir.  He'll prove as meek as an old sheep when we
+land on him."
+
+"There, will the bags do?" asked Mrs. Davey.
+
+"What are they for?" Goodenough asked.
+
+"We're supposed to have a slush fund in this room of a hundred
+thousand dollars," Davey answered dourly.  "My Oil Company is
+supposed to be buying up Mustapha Kemal!  I see my finish, if
+news of this ever reaches the States--or unless my version of it
+gets there first!"
+
+Grim turned to me.
+
+"We've got to find two people to take your place and mine in the
+car tomorrow morning.  Perhaps you'd better go in any case;
+you'll enjoy the ride as far as Haifa--stay there a day or two,
+and come back when you feel like it.  We'll find some officer to
+masquerade as me."
+
+But there I rebelled--flat, downright mutiny.
+
+"If I haven't made good so far," I said, "I'll consider myself
+fired, and hold my tongue.  Otherwise, I see this thing through!
+Send some one else on the joy-ride."
+
+"Good for you!" said Davey.
+
+"Dammit, man!" said Goodenough, staring at me through his
+monocle.  "The rest of us get paid for taking chances.  The only
+tangible reward you can possibly get will be a knife in your
+back.  Better be sensible and take the ride to Haifa."
+
+"My bet is down," said I.
+
+"Good," Grim nodded.  "It goes.  All the same, you get a joy-
+ride.  Can't take too many chances.  Tell you about that later.
+Meanwhile, will you detail an officer to come and spend the night
+in this hotel and masquerade as me at dawn, sir?  He can wear
+this uniform that I've got on--somebody about my height."
+
+"Turner will do that.  What are you going to put in the bags?"
+asked Goodenough.
+
+"Cartridges.  They're heavy.  You might tell Turner over the
+phone to bring them with him."
+
+At that point Suliman returned, sooner than expected, with news
+that made Grim whistle.  Suliman had not been inside the place
+where his mother was.  She would not let him.  But he had seen
+around her skirts as she stood in the partly opened door.
+
+"There was a hole in the floor," said Suliman, "and a great stone
+laid beside it.  Also much gray dust.  And I think there was a
+light a long way down in the hole."
+
+But that was not what made Grim whistle.
+
+"What else?  Did your mother say anything?"
+
+"She was ill-tempered."
+
+"That Scharnhoff had beaten her."
+
+"I knew he'd make a bad break sooner or later.  What did he beat
+her for?"
+
+"Because she was afraid."
+
+"That's a fine reason.  Afraid of what?"
+
+"He says she is to sell oranges.  Four wooden benches have been
+brought, and tomorrow they are to be set outside the door in the
+street.  Oranges and raisins have been bought, and she is to sit
+outside the door and sell them.  She is afraid."
+
+"Fruit bought already?  Can't be.  Was it inside there?"
+
+"No.  It is to come tomorrow.  She says she does not know how to
+sell fruit, and is afraid of the police."
+
+Grim and Goodenough exchanged glances.
+
+"She says that if the police come everybody will be killed, and
+that I am to keep watch in the street in the morning and give
+warning of the police."
+
+"That should teach you, young man, never to take a woman into
+your confidence--eh, Mrs. Davey?" said Goodenough.
+
+"We're certainly the slow-witted sex," she answered, piling the
+finished bags one on top of the other on the table.
+
+Grim took me after that to the hotel roof, whence you can see the
+whole of Jerusalem.  It was just before moonrise.  The ancient
+city lay in shadow, with the Dome of the Rock looming above it,
+mysterious and silent.  Down below us in the street, where a
+gasoline light threw a greenish-white glare, three Arabs in
+native costume were squatting with their backs against the low
+wall facing the hotel.
+
+"Noureddin Ali's men," said Grim, chuckling.  "They'll help us to
+prove our alibi.  The enemy is nearly always useful if you leave
+him free to make mistakes.  You may have to spend the whole night
+in the mosque--you and Suliman.  I'll take you there presently.
+Two of those men are pretty sure to follow us.  One will probably
+follow me back here again.  The other will stay to keep an eye on
+you.  About an hour before dawn, in case nothing happens before
+that, you and Suliman come back here to the hotel.  The car shall
+be here half-an-hour before daylight.  You and Turner pile into
+it, and those three men watch you drive away.  They'll hurry off
+to tell Noureddin Ali that Staff-Captain Ali Mirza and the
+deaf-and-dumb man have really started for Damascus, bags of gold
+and all.
+
+"Turner must remember to drop a couple of bags and pick them up
+again, to call attention to them.  There'll be a change of
+clothes in the car for you.  When you've gone a mile or so, get
+into the other clothes and walk back.  If I don't meet you by the
+Jaffa Gate, Suliman will, or else Narayan Singh.  Things are
+liable to happen pretty fast tomorrow morning.  Let's go.
+
+"I'm supposed to have found out somehow that you're awful
+religious and want to pray, so it's the Dome of the Rock for
+yours.  Any Moslem who wants to may sleep there, you know.  But
+any Christian caught kidding them he's a Moslem would be for it--
+short shrift.  He'd be dead before the sheikh of the place could
+hand him over to the authorities.  If the TNT were really in
+place underneath you, which I'm pretty sure it won't be for a few
+hours yet, that would be lots safer than the other chance you're
+taking.  So peel your wits.  Let Suliman sleep if he wants to,
+but you'll have to keep awake all night."
+
+"But what am I to do in there?  What's likely to happen?"
+
+"Just listen.  The tunnel isn't through to the end yet, I'm sure
+of it.  If it were, they'd have taken in the TNT, for it must be
+ticklish work keeping it hidden elsewhere, with scores of Sikhs
+watching day and night.  But they're very near the end of the
+tunnel, or they wouldn't be opening up that fruit stand.  You'll
+hear them break through.  When you're absolutely sure of that,
+come out of the mosque and say Atcha--just that one word--to the
+Sikh sentry you'll see standing under the archway through which
+we'll enter the courtyard presently.  That sentry will be Narayan
+Singh, and he'll know what to do."
+
+"What shall I do after that?"
+
+"Suit yourself.  Either return to the mosque and go to sleep, if
+you can trust yourself to wake in time, or come and sit on the
+hotel step until morning.  Have you got it all clear?  It's a
+piece of good luck having you to do all this.  No real Moslem
+would ever be able to hold his tongue about it.  They're
+superstitious about the Dome of the Rock.  But ask questions now,
+if you're not clear;  you mustn't be seen speaking in the street
+or in the mosque, remember.  All plain sailing?  Come along,
+then.  If you're alive tomorrow you'll have had an adventure."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Seventeen
+
+"Poor old Scharnhoff's in the soup."
+
+
+We ate a scratch dinner with the Daveys in their room and started
+forth.  Grim as usual had his nerve with him.  He led me and
+Suliman straight up to the three spies who were squatting against
+the wall, and asked whether there were any special regulations
+that would prevent my being left for the night in the famous
+mosque.  On top of that he asked one of the men to show him the
+shortest way.  So two of them elected to come with us, walking
+just ahead, and the third man stayed where he was, presumably in
+case Noureddin Ali should send to make enquiries.
+
+You must walk through Jerusalem by night, with the moon just
+rising, if you want really to get the glamour of eastern tales
+and understand how true to life those stories are of old Haroun-
+al-Raschid.  It is almost the only city left with its ancient
+walls all standing, with its ancient streets intact.  At that
+time, in 1920, there was nothing whatever new to mar the setting.
+No new buildings.  The city was only cleaner than it was under
+the Turks.
+
+Parts of the narrow thoroughfares are roofed over with vaulted
+arches.  The domed roofs rise in unplanned, beautiful disorder
+against a sky luminous with jewels.  To right and left you can
+look through key-hole arches down shadowy, narrow ways to carved
+doors through which Knights Templar used to swagger with gold
+spurs, and that Saladin's men appropriated after them.
+
+Yellow lamplight, shining from small windows set deep in the
+massive walls, casts an occasional band of pure gold across the
+storied gloom.  Now and then a man steps out from a doorway, his
+identity concealed by flowing eastern finery, pauses for a
+moment in the light to look about him, and disappears into
+silent mystery.
+
+Half-open doors at intervals give glimpses of white interiors,
+and of men from a hundred deserts sitting on mats to smoke great
+water-pipes and talk intrigue.  There are smells that are
+stagnant with the rot of time;  other smells pungent with
+spice, and mystery, and the alluring scent of bales of
+merchandise that, like the mew of gulls, can set the mind
+traveling to lands unseen.
+
+Through other arched doors, even at night, there is a glimpse of
+blindfold camels going round and round in ancient gloom at the
+oil-press.  There are no sounds of revelry.  The Arab takes his
+pleasures stately fashion, and the Jew has learned from history
+that the safest way to enjoy life is to keep quiet about it.  Now
+and then you can hear an Arab singing a desert song, not very
+musical but utterly descriptive of the life he leads.  We
+caught the sound of a flute played wistfully in an upper room
+by some Jew returned from the West to take up anew the thread
+of ancient history.
+
+Grim nudged me sharply in one shadowy place, where the street
+went down in twenty-foot-long steps between the high walls of
+windowless harems.  Another narrow street crossed ours thirty
+feet ahead of us, and our two guides were hurrying, only glancing
+back at intervals to make sure we had not given them the slip.
+The cross-street was between us and them, and as Grim nudged me
+two men--a bulky, bearded big one and one of rather less than
+middle height, both in Arab dress--passed in front of us.  There
+was no chance of being overheard, and Grim spoke in a low voice:
+
+"Do you recognize them?" "I shook my head.
+
+"Scharnhoff and Noureddin Ali!"
+
+I don't see now how he recognized them.  But I suppose a man who
+works long enough at Grim's business acquires a sixth sense.
+They were walking swiftly, arguing in low tones, much too busy
+with their own affairs to pay attention to us.  Our two guides
+glanced back a moment later, but they had vanished by then into
+the gloom of the cross-street.
+
+There was a dim lamp at one corner of that crossing.  As we
+passed through its pale circle of light I noticed a man who
+looked like an Arab lurking in the shadow just beyond it.  I
+thought he made a sign to Grim, but I did not see Grim return it.
+
+Grim watched his chance, then spoke again:
+
+"That man in the shadow is a Sikh--Narayan Singh's sidekick--
+keeping tabs on Scharnhoff.  I'll bet old Scharnhoff has cold
+feet and went to find Noureddin Ali to try and talk him out of
+it.  Might as well try to pretty-pussy a bob-cat away from a hen-
+yard!  Poor old Scharnhoff's in the soup!"
+
+Quite suddenly after that we reached a fairly wide street and the
+arched Byzantine gateway of the Haram-es-Sheriff, through which
+we could see tall cypress trees against the moonlit sky and the
+dome of the mosque beyond them.  They do say the Taj Mahal at
+Agra is a lovelier sight, and more inspiring;  but perhaps that
+is because the Taj is farther away from the folk who like to have
+opinions at second-hand.  Age, history, situation, setting,
+sanctity--the Dome of the Rock has the advantage of all those,
+and the purple sky, crowded with coloured stars beyond it is more
+wonderful over Jerusalem, because of the clearness of the
+mountain air.
+
+In that minute, and for the first time, I hated the men
+who could plot to blow up that place.  Hitherto I had been
+merely interested.
+
+Because it was long after the hour when non-Moslem visitors are
+allowed to go about the place with guides, we were submitted to
+rather careful scrutiny by men who came out of the shadows and
+said nothing, but peered into our faces.  They did not speak to
+let us by, but signified admittance by turning uninterested backs
+and retiring to some dark corners to resume the vigil.  I thought
+that the Sikh sentry, who stood with bayonet fixed outside the
+arch, looked at Grim with something more than curiosity, but no
+sign that I could detect passed between them.
+
+The great white moonlit courtyard was empty.  Not a soul stirred
+in it.  Not a shadow moved.  Because of the hour there were not
+even any guides lurking around the mosque.  The only shape that
+came to life as we approached the main entrance of the mosque was
+the man who takes care of the slippers for a small fee.
+
+Grim, since he was in military dress, allowed the attendant to
+tie on over his shoes the great straw slippers they keep there
+for that purpose.  Suliman had nothing on his feet.  I kicked off
+the red Damascus slippers I was wearing, and we entered the
+octagonal building by passing under a curtain at the rear of the
+deep, vaulted entrance.
+
+Nobody took any notice of us at first.  It was difficult to see,
+for one thing;  the light of the lamps that hung on chains from
+the arches overhead was dimmed by coloured lenses and did little
+more than beautify the gloom.  But in the dimness in the midst
+you could see the rock of Abraham, surrounded by a railing to
+preserve it from profane feet.  Little by little the shadows took
+shape of men praying, or sleeping, or conversing in low tones.
+
+The place was not crowded.  There were perhaps a hundred men in
+there, some of whom doubtless intended to spend the night.  All
+of them, though they gave us a cursory glance, seemed disposed to
+mind their own business.  It looked for a minute as if we were
+going to remain in there unquestioned.  But the two spies who had
+come with us saw a chance to confirm or else disprove our bona
+fides, and while one of them stayed and watched us the other went
+to fetch the Sheikh of the Mosque.
+
+He came presently, waddling very actively for such a stout man--a
+big, burly, gray-bearded intellectual, with eyes that beamed
+intelligent good-humour through gold-rimmed glasses.  He did not
+seem at all pleased to have been disturbed, until he drew near
+enough to scan our faces.  Then his change of expression, as soon
+as he had looked once into Grim's eyes, gave me cold chills all
+down the back.  I could have sworn he was going to denounce us.
+
+Instead, he turned on the two spies.  He tongue-lashed them in
+Arabic.  I could not follow it word for word.  I gathered that
+they had hinted some suspicion as to the genuineness of Grim's
+pretension to be Staff-Captain Ali Mirza.  He was rebuking them
+for it.  They slunk away.  One went and sat near the door we had
+entered by.  The other vanished completely.
+
+"Jimgrim!  What do you do here at this hour?" asked the sheikh as
+soon as we stood alone.
+
+"Talk French," Grim answered.  "We can't afford to be overheard."
+
+"True, O Jimgrim!  It is all your life and my position is worth
+for you to be detected in here in that disguise at such an hour!
+And who are these with you?"
+
+"It is all your life and mosque are worth to turn us out!" Grim
+answered.  "When was I ever your enemy?"
+
+"Never yet, but--what does this mean?"
+
+"You shall know in the morning--you alone.  This man, who can
+neither hear nor speak, and the child with him, must stay in here
+tonight, and go when they choose, unquestioned."
+
+"Jimgrim, this is not a place for setting traps for criminals.
+Set your watch outside, and none shall interfere with you."
+
+"'Shall the heart within be cleansed by washing hands?'" Grim
+quoted, and the shiekh smiled.
+
+"Do you mean there are criminals within the mosque?  If so, this
+is sanctuary, Jimgrim.  They shall not be disturbed.  Set
+watchmen at the doors and catch them as they leave, if you will.
+This is holy ground."
+
+"There'll be none of it left to boast about this time tomorrow,
+if you choose to insist!" Grim answered.
+
+"Should there be riddles between you and me?" asked the sheikh.
+
+"You shall know all in the morning."
+
+The sheikh's face changed again, taking on a look of mingled rage
+and cunning.
+
+"I know, then, what it is!  The rumour is true that those cursed
+Zionists intend to desecrate the place.  This fellow, who you say
+is deaf and dumb, is one of your spies--is he not?  Perhaps he
+can smell a Zionist--eh?  Well, there are others!  Better tell me
+the truth, Jimgrim, and in fifteen minutes I will pack this place
+so full of true Moslems that no conspirator could worm his way
+in!  Then if the Jews start anything let them beware!"
+
+"By the beard of your Prophet," Grim answered impiously, "this
+has nothing to do with Zionists."
+
+"Neither have I, then, anything to do with this trespass.  You
+have my leave to depart at once, Jimgrim!"
+
+"After the ruin--"
+
+"There will be no ruin, Jimgrim!  I will fill the place
+with men."
+
+"Better empty it of men!  The more there are in it, the bigger
+the death-roll!  Shall I say afterwards that I begged leave to
+set a watch, and you refused?"
+
+"You--you, Jimgrim--you talk to me of ruin and a death-roll?  You
+are no every-day alarmist."
+
+"Did you ever catch me in a lie?"
+
+"No, Jimgrim.  You are too clever by far for that!  If you were
+to concoct a lie it would take ten angels to unravel it!  But--
+you speak of ruin and a death-roll, eh?"  He stroked his beard
+for about a minute.
+
+"You have heard, perhaps, that Moslems are sharpening their
+swords for a reckoning with the Jews?  There may be some truth in
+it.  But there shall be no gathering in this place for any such
+purpose, for I will see to that.  You need set no watch in here
+on that account."
+
+"The time always comes," Grim answered, "when you must trust a
+man or mistrust him.  You've known me eleven years.  What are you
+going to do?"
+
+"In the name of God, what shall I answer! Taib,* Jimgrim, I will
+trust you.  What is it you wish?"  [*All right.]
+
+"To leave this deaf-and-dumb man and the boy, below the
+Rock, undisturbed."
+
+"That cannot well be.  Occasionally others  go to pray in that
+place.  Also, there is a Moslem who has made the pilgrimage from
+Trichinopoli.  I myself have promised to show him the mosque
+tonight, because he leaves Jerusalem at dawn, and only I speak a
+language he can understand.  There will be others with him, and I
+cannot refuse to take them down below the Rock."
+
+"That is nothing," Grim answered.  "They will think nothing of a
+deaf-and-dumb man praying or sleeping in a  a corner."
+
+"Is that all he wishes to do?  He will remain still in one place?
+Then come."
+
+"One other thing.  That fellow who went and fetched you--he sits
+over there by the north door now--he will ask you questions about
+me presently.  Tell him I'm leaving for Damascus in the morning.
+If he asks what we have been speaking about so long, tell him I
+brought you the compliments of Mustapha Kemal."
+
+"I will tell him to go to jahannam!"
+
+"Better be civil to him. His hour comes tomorrow."
+
+The sheikh led the way along one side of the inner of three
+concentric parts into which the mosque is divided by rows of
+marble columns, until we came to a cavernous opening in the
+floor, where steps hewn in the naked rock led downward into a
+cave that underlies the spot on which tradition says Abraham made
+ready to sacrifice his son.
+
+It was very dark below.  Only one little oil lamp was burning, on
+a rock shaped like an altar in one corner.  It cast leaping
+shadows that looked like ghosts on the smooth, uneven walls.  The
+whole place was hardly more than twenty feet wide each way.
+There was no furniture, not even the usual mats--nothing but
+naked rock to lie or sit on, polished smooth as glass by
+centuries of naked feet.
+
+I was going to sit in a corner, but Grim seized my arm and
+pointed to the centre of the floor, stamping with his foot to
+show the exact place I should take.  It rang vaguely hollow under
+the impact, and Suliman, already frightened by the shadows,
+seized my hand in a paroxysm of terror.
+
+"You've got to prove you're a man tonight and stick it out!" Grim
+said to him in English;  and with that, rather than argue the
+point and risk a scene, he followed the sheikh up the steps and
+disappeared.  Grim's methods with Suliman were a strange mixture
+of understanding sympathy and downright indifference to sentiment
+that got him severely criticized by the know-it-all party, who
+always, everywhere condemn.  But he certainly got results.
+
+A legion of biblical and Koranic devils owned Suliman.  They were
+the child's religion.  When he dared, he spat at the name of
+Christianity.  Whenever Grim whipped him, which he had to do now
+and again, for theft or for filthy language, he used to curse
+Grim's religion, although Grim's religion was a well-kept secret,
+known to none but himself.  But the kid was loyal to Grim with a
+courage and persistence past belief, and Grim knew how to worm
+the truth out of him and make him keep his word, which is more
+than some of the professional reformers know how to do with
+their proteges.  I believe that Suliman would rather have earned
+Grim's curt praise than all the fabulous delights of even a
+Moslem paradise.
+
+But the kid was in torment.  His idea of manliness precluded any
+exhibition of fear in front of me, if he could possibly restrain
+himself.  He would not have minded breaking down in front of
+Grim, for he knew that Grim knew him inside out.  On the
+contrary, he looked down on me, as a mere amateur at the game,
+who had never starved at the Jaffa Gate, nor eaten candle-ends,
+or gambled for milliemes* with cab-drivers' sons while picking up
+odds and ends of gossip for a government that hardly knew of his
+existence.  In front of me he proposed to act the man--guide--
+showman--mentor.  He considered himself my boss.  [*The smallest
+coin of the country.]
+
+But it was stem work.  If there had been a little noise to make
+the shadows less ghostly;  if Suliman had not been full of half-
+digested superstition;  or if he had not overheard enough to be
+aware that a prodigious, secret plot was in some way connected
+with that cavern, he could have kept his courage up by swaggering
+in front of me.
+
+He nearly fell asleep, with his head in my lap, at the end of
+half-an-hour.  But when there was a sound at last he almost
+screamed.  I had to clap my hand over his mouth;  whereat he
+promptly bit my finger, resentful because he knew then that I
+knew he was afraid.
+
+It proved to be approaching footsteps--the sheikh of the mosque
+again, leading the man from Trichinopoli and a party of three
+friends.  Their rear was brought up by Noureddin;  Ali's spy,
+anxious about me, but pretending to want to overhear the sheikh's
+account of things.
+
+The sheikh reeled it all off in a cultured voice accustomed to
+using the exact amount of energy required, but even so his words
+boomed in the cavern like the forethought of thunder.  You
+couldn't help wondering whether a man of his intelligence
+believed quite all he said, however much impressed the man from
+Trichinopoli might be.
+
+"We are now beneath the very rock on which Abraham was willing to
+sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  This rock is the centre of the
+world.  Jacob anointed it.  King Solomon built his temple over
+it.  The Prophet of God, the Prince Mahommed, on whose head be
+blessings! said of this place that it is next in order of
+holiness after Mecca, and that one prayer said here is worth ten
+elsewhere.  Here, in this place, is where King Solomon used to
+kneel in prayer, and where God appeared to him.  This corner is
+where David prayed.  Here prayed Mahommed.
+
+"Look up.  This hollow in the roof is over the spot where the
+Prophet Mahommed slept.  When he arose there was not room for him
+to stand upright, so the Rock receded, and the hollow place
+remains to this day in proof of it.  Beneath us is the Bir-el-
+Arwah, the well of souls, where those who have died come to pray
+twice weekly.  Listen!"
+
+He stamped three times with his foot on the spot about two
+feet in front of where I sat, and a faint, hollow boom answered
+the impact.
+
+"You hear?  The Rock speaks!  It spoke in plain words when the
+Prophet prayed here, and was translated instantly to heaven on
+his horse El-Burak.  Here, deep in the Rock, is the print of the
+hand of the angel, who restrained the Rock from following the
+Prophet on his way to Paradise.  Here, in this niche, is where
+Abraham used to pray;  here, Elijah.  On the last day the Kaaba
+of Mecca must come to this place.  For it is here, in this cave,
+that the blast of the trumpet will sound, announcing the day of
+judgment.  Then God's throne will be planted on the Rock above
+us.  Be humble in the presence of these marvels."
+
+He turned on his pompous heel and led the way out again without
+as much as a sidewise glance at me.  The spy was satisfied;  he
+followed the party up the rock-hewn steps, and as a matter of
+fact went to sleep on a mat near the north door, for so I found
+him later on.
+
+The silence shut down again.  Suliman went fast asleep, snoring
+with the even cadence of a clock's tick, using my knees for a
+pillow with a perfect sense of ownership.  He was there to keep
+care of me, not I of him.  The sleep suggestion very soon took
+hold of me, too, for there was nothing whatever to do but sit and
+watch the shadows move, trying to liken them to something real as
+they changed shape in answer to the flickering of the tiny, naked
+flame.  Thereafter, the vigil resolved itself into a battle
+with sleep, and an effort to keep my wits sufficiently alert for
+sudden use.
+
+I had no watch.  There was nothing to give the least notion of
+how much time had passed.  I even counted the boy's snores for a
+while, and watched one lonely louse moving along the wall--so
+many snores to the minute--so many snores to an inch of crawling;
+but the louse changed what little mind he had and did not walk
+straight, and I gave up trying to calculate the distance he
+traveled in zigzags and curves, although it would have been an
+interesting problem for a navigator.  Finally, Suliman's
+snoring grew so loud that that in itself kept me awake;  it
+was like listening to a hair-trombone;  each blast of it rasped
+your nerves.
+
+You could not hear anything in the mosque above, although there
+were only eleven steps and the opening was close at hand;  for
+the floor above was thickly carpeted, and if there were any
+sounds they were swallowed by that and the great, domed roof.
+When I guessed it might be midnight I listened for the voice of
+the muezzin;  but if he did call the more-than-usually faithful
+to wake up and pray, he did it from a minaret outside, and no
+faint echo of his voice reached me.  I was closed in a tomb in
+the womb of living rock, to all intents and purposes.
+
+But it must have been somewhere about midnight when I heard a
+sound that set every vein in my body tingling.  At first it was
+like the sort of sound that a rat makes gnawing;  but there
+couldn't be rats eating their way through that solid stone.  I
+thought I heard it a second time, but Suliman's snoring made it
+impossible to listen properly.  I shook him violently, and he
+sat up.
+
+"Keep still!  Listen!"
+
+Between sleeping and waking the boy forgot all about the iron
+self-control he practised for Grim's exacting sake.
+
+"What is it?  I am afraid!"
+
+"Be still, confound you!  Listen!"
+
+"How close beneath us are the souls of the dead?  Oh, I
+am afraid!"
+
+"Silence!  Breathe through your mouth.  Make no noise at all!"
+
+He took my hand and tried to sit absolutely still;  but the
+gnawing noise began again, more distinctly, followed by two or
+three dull thuds from somewhere beneath us.
+
+"Oh, it is the souls of dead men!  Oh--"
+
+"Shut up, you little idiot!  All right, I'll tell Jimgrim!"
+
+Fear and that threat combined were altogether too much for him.
+One sprig of seedling manhood remained to him, and only one--the
+will to smother emotion that he could not control a second
+longer.  He buried his head in my lap, stuffing his mouth with
+the end of the abiyi to choke the sobs back. I covered his head
+completely and, like the fabled ostrich, in that darkness he
+felt better.
+
+Suddenly, as clear as the ring of glass against thick glass in
+the distance, something gave way and fell beneath us.  Then
+again.  Then there were several thuds, followed by a rumble that
+was unmistakable--falling masonry;  it was the noise that bricks
+make when they dump them from a tip-cart, only smothered by the
+thickness of the cavern floor.  I shook Suliman again.
+
+"Come on.  We're going.  Now, let me have a good account of you
+to give to Jimgrim.  Shut your teeth tight, and remember the part
+you've got to play."
+
+He scrambled up the steps ahead of me, and I had to keep hold of
+the skirts of his smock to prevent him from running.  But he took
+my hand at the top, and we managed to get out through the north
+door without exciting comment, and without waking the spy,
+although I would just as soon have wakened him, for Grim seemed
+to think it important that his alibi and mine should be well
+established;  however, there were two others watching by the
+hotel.  Ten minutes later I was glad I had not disturbed him.
+
+I gave Suliman a two-piastre piece to pay the man who had charge
+of my slippers at the door, and the young rascal was so far
+recovered from his fright that he demanded change out of it, and
+stood there arguing until he got it.  Then, hand-in-hand, we
+crossed the great moonlit open court to the gate by which Grim
+had brought us in.
+
+Looking back, so bright was the moon that you could even see the
+blue of the tiles that cover the mosque wall, and the interwoven
+scroll of writing from the Koran that runs around like a frieze
+below the dome.  But it did not look real.  It was like a
+dream-picture--perhaps the dream of the men who slept huddled
+under blankets in the porches by the gate.  If so, they
+dreamed beautifully.
+
+There was a Sikh, as Grim had said there would be, standing with
+fixed bayonet on the bottom step leading to the street.  He
+stared hard at me, and brought his rifle to the challenge as I
+approached him--a six-foot, black-bearded stalwart he was, with a
+long row of campaign ribbons, and the true, truculent Sikh way of
+carrying his head.  He looked strong enough to carry an ox away.
+
+"Atcha!" said I, going close to him.
+
+He did not answer a word, but shouldered his rifle and marched
+off.  Before he had gone six paces he brought the rifle to the
+trail, and started running.  Another Sikh--a younger man--stepped
+out of the shadow and took his place on the lower step.  He was
+not quite so silent, and he knew at least one word of Arabic.
+
+"Imshi!" he grunted;  and that, in plain U.S. American, means
+"Beat it!"
+
+I had no objection.  It sounded rather like good advice.
+Remembering what Grim had said about the danger I was running,
+and looking at the deep black shadows of the streets, it occurred
+to me that that spy, who slept so soundly by the mosque door,
+might wake up and be annoyed with himself.  When men of that type
+get annoyed they generally like to work it off on somebody.
+
+Rather, than admit that he had let me get away from him he might
+prefer to track me through the streets and use his knife on me in
+some dark corner.  After that he could claim credit with
+Noureddin Ali by swearing he had reason to suspect me of
+something or other.  The suggestion did not seem any more unreal
+to me than the moonlit panorama of the Haram-es-Sheriff, or the
+Sikh who had stepped out of nowhere-at-all to "Imshi" me away.
+
+On the other hand, I had no fancy for the hotel steps.  To sit
+and fall asleep there would be to place myself at the mercy of
+the other two spies, who might come and search me;  and I was
+conscious of certain papers in an inner pocket, and of underclothes
+made in America, that might have given the game away.
+
+Besides, I was no longer any too sure of Suliman.  The boy was so
+sleepy that his wits were hardly in working order;  if those two
+spies by the hotel were to question him he might betray the two
+of us by some clumsy answer.  If there was to be trouble that
+night I preferred to have it at the hands of Sikhs, who are
+seldom very drastic unless you show violence.  I might be
+arrested if I walked the streets, but that would be sheer profit
+as compared to half-a-yard of cold knife in the broad of my back.
+
+"Take me to the house where you talked with your mother," I said
+to Suliman.
+
+So we turned to the left and set off together in that direction,
+watched with something more than mild suspicion by the Sikh, and,
+if Suliman's sensations were anything like mine, feeling about as
+cheerless, homeless and aware of impending evil as the dogs that
+slunk away into the night.  I took advantage of the first deep
+shadow I could find to walk in, less minded to explore than to
+avoid pursuit.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eighteen
+
+"But we're ready for them."
+
+
+Without in the least suspecting it I had gone straight into a
+blind trap, into which, it was true, I could not be followed by
+Noureddin Ali's spy, but out of which there was no escape without
+being recognized.  The moment I stepped into the deep shadow I
+heard an unmistakable massed movement behind me.  Sure that I
+could not be seen, I faced about.  A platoon of Sikhs had
+appeared from somewhere, and were standing at ease already,
+across the end of the street I had entered, with the moonlight
+silvering their bayonets.
+
+Well, most streets have two ends.  So I walked forward, not
+taking much trouble about concealment, since it was not easy to
+walk silently.  If the Sikh can't see his enemy he likes to fire
+first and challenge afterwards.  I preferred to be seen.  The
+sight of those uncompromising bayonets had changed my mind about
+the choice of evils.  The knife of a hardly probable assassin
+seemed a wiser risk than the ready triggers of the Punjaub.
+Half-way down the street Suliman tugged at my cloak.
+
+"That is the place where my mother is," he said, pointing to a
+narrow door on the left.
+
+But I was taking no chances in that direction--not at that
+moment.  The little stone house was all in darkness.  There were
+no windows that I could see.  No sound came from it.  And farther
+down the street there was a lamp burning, whose light spelled
+safety from shots fired at the sound of foot-fall on suspicion.
+I wanted that light between me and the Sikh platoon, yet did not
+dare run for it, since that would surely have started trouble.
+It is my experience of Sikhs that when they start a thing they
+like to finish it.  They are very good indeed at explanations
+after the event.
+
+The Sikhs must have seen us pass through the belt of gasoline
+light, but they did not challenge, so I went forward more slowly,
+with rather less of that creepy feeling that makes a man's spine
+seem to belong to some one else.  Toward its lower end the street
+curved considerably, and we went about a quarter of a mile before
+the glare of another light began to appear around the bend.
+
+That was at a cross-street, up which I proposed to turn more or
+less in the direction of the hotel.  But I did nothing of the
+sort.  There was a cordon of Sikhs drawn across there, too, with
+no British officer in sight to enforce discretion.
+
+Come to think of it, I have always regarded a bayonet wound in
+the stomach as the least desirable of life's unpleasantries.
+
+So Suliman and I turned back.  I decided to investigate that dark
+little stone house, after all;  for it occurred to me that, if
+that was the centre of conspiracy, then Grim would certainly show
+up there sooner or later and straighten out the predicament.
+Have you ever noticed how hungry you get walking about aimlessly
+in the dark, especially when you are sleepy in the bargain?
+Suliman began to whimper for food, and although I called him a
+belly on legs by way of encouragement he had my secret sympathy.
+I was as hungry as he was;  and I needed a drink, too, which he
+didn't.  The little devil hadn't yet included whiskey in his list
+of vices.
+
+The side of the street an which the little stone house stood was
+the darker, so we sat down with our backs against its wall, and
+the boy proceeded to fall asleep at once.  The one thing I was
+sure I must not do was imitate him.  So I began to look about me
+in the hope of finding something sufficiently interesting to keep
+me awake.
+
+There was nothing in the street except the makings of a bad
+smell.  There was plenty of that.  I searched the opposite wall,
+on which the moon shone, but there was nothing there of even
+architectural interest.  My eyes traveled higher, and rested at
+last on something extremely curious.
+
+The wall was not very high at that point.  It formed the blind
+rear of a house that faced into a court of some sort approached
+by an alley from another street.  There were no windows.  A small
+door some distance to my left belonged obviously to the next
+house.  On top of the wall, almost exactly, but not quite, in the
+middle of it, was a figure that looked like a wooden carving--
+something like one of those fat, seated Chinamen they used to set
+over the tea counter of big grocer's shops.
+
+But the one thing that you never see, and can be sure of not
+seeing in Jerusalem outside of a Christian church, is a carved
+human figure of any kind.  The Moslems are fanatical on that
+point.  Whatever exterior statues the crusaders for instance
+left, the Saracens and Turks destroyed.  Besides, why was it not
+exactly in the middle?
+
+It was much too big and thick-set to be a sleeping vulture.  It
+was the wrong shape to be any sort of chimney.  It was certainly
+not a bale of merchandise put up on the roof to dry.  And the
+longer you looked at it the less it seemed to resemble anything
+recognizable.  I had about reached the conclusion that it must be
+a bundle of sheepskins up-ended, ready to be spread out in the
+morning sun, and was going to cast about for something else to
+puzzle over, when it moved.  The man who thinks he would not feel
+afraid when a thing like that moves in the dark unexpectedly has
+got to prove it before I believe him.  The goose-flesh broke out
+all over me.
+
+A moment later the thing tilted forward, and a man's head emerged
+from under a blanket.  It chuckled damnably.  If there had been a
+rock of the right size within reach I would have thrown it, for
+it is not agreeable to be chuckled at when you are hungry,
+sleepy, and in a trap.  I know just how trapped animals feel.
+
+But then it spoke in good plain English;  and you could not
+mistake the voice.
+
+"That's what comes of suiting yourself, doesn't it!  Place
+plugged at both ends, and nowhere to go but there and back!
+Thanks for tipping off Narayan Singh--you see, we were all ready.
+Here's a pass that'll let you out--catch!"
+
+He threw down a piece of white paper, folded.
+
+"Show that to the Sikhs at either end.  Now beat it, while the
+going's good.  Leave Suliman there.  I shall want him when he has
+had his sleep out.  Say:  hadn't you better change your   mind
+about coming back too soon from that joy ride?  Haven't you had
+enough of this?  The next move's dangerous."
+
+"Is it my choice?" I asked.
+
+"We owe you some consideration."
+
+"Then I'm in on the last act."
+
+"All right.  But don't blame me.  Turner will give you orders.
+Get a move on."
+
+I lowered Suliman's head gently from my knee on to a nice
+comfortable corner of the stone gutter, and went up-street to
+interview the Sikhs.  It was rather like a New York Customs
+inspection, after your cabin steward has not been heavily enough
+tipped, and has tipped off the men in blue by way of distributing
+the discontent.  I showed them the safe-pass Grim had scribbled.
+They accepted that as dubious preliminary evidence of my right to
+be alive, but no more.  I was searched painstakingly and
+ignominiously for weapons.  No questions asked.  Nothing taken
+for granted.  Even my small change was examined in the moonlight,
+coin by coin, to make sure, I suppose, that it wouldn't explode
+if struck on stone.  They gave everything back to me, including
+my underwear.
+
+A bearded non-commissioned officer entered a description of me in
+a pocket memorandum book.  If his face, as he wrote it, was
+anything to judge by he described me as a leper without a
+license.  Then I was cautioned gruffly in an unknown tongue and
+told to "imshi!"  It isn't a bad plan to "imshi" rather quickly
+when a Sikh platoon suggests your doing it.  I left them standing
+all alone, with nothing but the empty night to bristle at.
+
+The rest of that night, until half-an-hour before dawn was a
+half-waking dream of discomfort and chilly draughts in the mouth
+of the hotel arcade, where I sat and watched the spies, and they
+watched me.  The third man was presumably still sleeping in the
+mosque, but it was satisfactory to know that the other two were
+just as cold and unhappy as I felt.
+
+About ten minutes before the car came the third man showed up
+sheepishly, looking surprised as well as relieved to find me
+sitting there.  He put in several minutes explaining matters to
+his friends.  I don't doubt he lied like a horse-trader and gave
+a detailed account of having followed me from place to place, for
+he used a great deal of pantomimic gesture.  The other two were
+cynical with the air of men who must sit and listen to another
+blowing his own trumpet.
+
+The car arrived with a fanfare of horn-blowing, the chauffeur
+evidently having had instructions to call lots of attention to
+himself.  Turner came out at once, with the lower part of his
+face protected against the morning chill by a muffler.  Being
+about the same height, and in that Syrian uniform, he looked
+remarkably like Grim, except that he did not imitate the stride
+nearly as well.
+
+He stumbled over me, clutched my shoulder and made signs for the
+benefit of the spies.  Then he whispered to me to help him carry
+out the "money" bags.  So we each took three for the first trip,
+and each contrived to drop one.  By the time all ten bags were in
+the car there can hardly have remained any doubt in the
+conspirators' minds that we were really taking funds to Mustapha
+Kemal, or at any rate to somebody up north.
+
+But Davey was no half-way concession maker.  Having lent himself
+unwillingly to the trick, he did his utmost to make it succeed,
+like a good sport.  He stuck his head out of a bedroom window.
+
+"Don't forget, now, to send me those rugs from Damascus!"
+he shouted.
+
+It all went like clockwork.  Glancing back as we drove by the
+Jaffa Gate I saw the three spies walk away, and there is very
+often more information in men's backs than in their faces.  They
+walked like laborers returning home with a day's work behind
+them, finished;  not at all like men in doubt, nor as if they
+suspected they were followed, although in fact they were.  Three
+Sikhs emerged from the corner by the Gate and strolled along
+behind them.  Detailed preparations for the round-up had begun.
+The unostentatious mechanism of it seemed more weird and terrible
+than the conspiracy itself.
+
+There was a full company of Sikhs standing to arms in a side
+street leading off the Jaffa Road, but they took no notice of us.
+Their officer looked keenly at us once, and then very
+deliberately stared the other way, illustrating how some fighting
+men make pretty poor dissemblers;  every one of his dark-skinned
+rank and file had observed all the details of our outfit without
+seeming to see us at all.
+
+"We're using nothing but Sikhs on this job," said Turner.
+"British troops wouldn't appreciate the delicacy of the
+situation.  Moslems couldn't be trusted not to talk.  The Sikhs
+enjoy the surreptitious part of it, and don't care enough about
+the politics to get excited.  Wish I might be in at the finish,
+though!  Have you any notion what the real objective is?"
+
+"No," said I, and tried not to feel, or look pleased with myself.
+But no mere amateur can conceal that, in the moment of discovery,
+he knows more about the inside of an official business than one
+of the Administration's lawful agents.  That is nine-tenths of
+the secret of "bossed" politics--the sheer vanity of being on the
+inside, "in the know."  I suppose I smirked.   "Damn this ride
+to Haifa!  What the hell have you done, I wonder, that you should
+have a front pew?  Is the Intelligence short of officers?"
+
+I had done nothing beyond making Grim's acquaintance and by good
+luck tickling his flair for odd friendship.  I thought it better
+not to say that, so I went on lying.
+
+"I don't suppose I know any more than you do."
+
+"Rot!  I posted the men who watched you into Djemal's place
+yesterday, and watched you out again.  You acted pretty poorly,
+if you ask me.  It's a marvel we didn't have to go in there and
+rescue you.  I suppose you're another of Grim's favorites.  He
+picks some funny ones.  Half the men in jail seem to be friends
+of his."
+
+I decided to change the subject.
+
+"I was told to change clothes and walk back after a mile or so,"
+I said.  "Suppose we don't make it a Marathon.  Why walk farther
+than we need to?"
+
+"Uh!"
+
+I think he was feeling sore enough to take me ten miles for the
+satisfaction of making me tramp them back to Jerusalem.  But it
+turned out not to be his day for working off grievances.  We were
+bowling along pretty fast, and had just reached open country
+where it would be a simple matter to change into other clothes
+without risk of being seen doing it, when we began to be
+overhauled by another, larger car that came along at a terrific
+pace.  It was still too dark to make out who was in it until it
+drew almost abreast.
+
+"The Administrator by the Horn Spoon!  What next, I wonder!  Pull
+up!" said Turner.  "Morning, sir."
+
+The two cars came to a standstill.  The Administrator leaned out.
+
+"I think I can save you a walk," he said, smiling.  "How about
+changing your clothes between the cars and driving back with me?"
+
+I did not even know yet what new disguise I was to assume, but
+Turner opened a hand-bag and produced a suit of my own clothes
+and a soft hat.
+
+"Burgled your bedroom," he explained.
+
+All he had forgotten was suspenders.  No doubt it would have
+given him immense joy to think of me walking back ten miles
+without them.
+
+Sir Louis gave his orders while I changed clothes.
+
+"You'd better keep going for some time, Turner.  No need to go
+all the way to Haifa, but don't get back to Jerusalem before
+noon at the earliest, and be sure you don't talk to anybody on
+your way."
+
+Turner drove on.  I got in beside the Administrator.
+
+"Grim tells me that you don't object to a certain amount of risk.
+You've been very useful, and he thinks you would like to see the
+end of the business.  I wouldn't think of agreeing to it, only we
+shall have to call on you as a witness against Scharnhoff and
+Noureddin Ali.  As you seem able to keep still about what you
+know, it seems wiser not to change witnesses at this stage.  It
+is highly important that we should have one unofficial observer,
+who is neither Jew nor Moslem, and who has no private interest to
+serve.  But I warn you, what is likely to happen this morning
+will be risky."
+
+I looked at the scar on his cheek, and the campaign ribbons, and
+the attitude of absolute poise that can only be attained by years
+of familiarity with danger.
+
+"Why do you soldiers always act like nursemaids toward
+civilians?" I asked him.  "We're bone of your bone."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Entrenched privilege!  If we let you know too much you'd think
+too little of us!"
+
+We stopped at a Jew's store outside the city for suspenders, and
+then made the circuit outside the walls in a whirlwind of dust,
+stopping only at each gate to get reports from the officers
+commanding companies drawn up in readiness to march in and police
+the city.
+
+"It's all over the place that disaster of some sort is going to
+happen today," said Sir Louis.  "It only needs a hatful of
+rumours to set Jerusalemites at one another's throats.  But we're
+ready for them.  The first to start trouble this morning will be
+the first to get it.  Now--sorry you've no time for breakfast--
+here's the Jaffa Gate.  Will you walk through the city to that
+street where Grim talked with you from a roof last night?  You'll
+find him thereabouts.  Sure you know the way?  Good-bye.  Good
+luck!  No, you won't need a pass;  there'll be nobody to
+interfere with you."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Nineteen
+
+"Dead or alive, sahib."
+
+
+I did get breakfast nevertheless, but in a strange place.  The
+city shutters were coming down only under protest, because, just
+as in Boston and other hubs of sanctity, shop-looting starts less
+than five minutes after the police let go control.  There was an
+average, that morning, of about ten rumours to the ear.  So the
+shop-keepers had to be ordered to open up.  About the mildest
+rumour was that the British had decide to vacate and to leave the
+Zionists in charge of things.  You couldn't fool an experienced
+Jew as to what would happen in that event.  There was another
+rumour that Mustapha Kemal was on the march.  Another that an
+Arab army was invading from the direction of El-Kerak.  But there
+were British officers walking about with memorandum books, and a
+fifty-pound fine looked more serious than an outbreak that had
+not occurred yet.  So they were putting down their shutters.
+
+I had nearly reached the Haram-es-Sheriff, and was passing a
+platoon of Sikhs who dozed beside their rifles near a street
+corner, when Grim's voice hailed me through the half-open door
+behind them.  He was back in his favourite disguise as a Bedouin,
+squatting on a mat near the entrance of a vaulted room, where he
+could see through the door without being seen.
+
+"This is headquarters for the present," he explained.  "Soon as
+we bag the game we'll run 'em in here quick as lightning.  Most
+likely keep 'em here all day, so's not to have to parade 'em
+through the streets until after dark.  A man's coming soon with
+coffee and stuff to eat."
+
+"What's become of Suliman?"
+
+"He's shooting craps with two other young villains close to
+where you left him last night.  I'm hoping he'll get word with
+his mother."
+
+Grim looked more nervous than I had ever seen him.  There was a
+deep frown between his eyes.  He talked as if he were doing it to
+keep himself from worrying.
+
+"What's eating you?" I asked.
+
+"Noureddin Ali.  After all this trouble to bag the whole gang
+without any fuss there's a chance he's given us the slip.  I
+watched all night to make sure he didn't come out of that door.
+He didn't.  But I've no proof he's in there.  Scharnhoff's in
+there, and five of the chief conspirators.  Noureddin Ali may be.
+But a man brought me a story an hour ago about seeing him on the
+city wall.  However, here's the food.  So let's eat."
+
+He sat and munched gloomily, until presently Goodenough joined
+us, looking, what with that monocle and one thing and another, as
+if he had just stepped out of a band-box.
+
+"Well, Grim, the net's all ready.  If that TNT is where you say
+it is, in that big barn behind the fruit-stalls near the Jaffa
+Gate, it's ours the minute they make a move."
+
+"There isn't a doubt on that point," Grim answered.  "Why else
+should Scharnhoff open a fruit-shop?  The license for it was
+taken out by one of Noureddin Ali's agents, whose brother deals
+in fruit wholesale and owns that barn.  Narayan Singh tracked
+some suspicious packages to that place four days ago.  They'll
+start to carry it into the city hidden under loads of fruit just
+as soon as the morning crowd begins to pour in.  We only need let
+them get the first consignment in, so as to have the chain of
+evidence complete.  Are you sure your men will let the first lot
+go through?"
+
+"Absolutely.  Just came from giving them very careful
+instructions. The minute that first load disappears into the city
+they'll close in on the barn and arrest every one they find in
+there.  But what are you gloomy about?"
+
+"I'd hate to miss the big fish."
+
+"You mean Noureddin Ali ?"
+
+"It looks to me as if he's been a shade too wise for us.  One man
+swore he saw him on the wall this morning, but he was gone when I
+sent to make sure.  We've got all the rest.  There are five in
+Djemal's Cafe, waiting for the big news;  they'll be handcuffed
+one at a time by the police when they get tired of waiting and
+come out.
+
+"But I'd rather bag Noureddin Ali than all the others put
+together.  He's got brains, that little beast has.  He'd know how
+to use this story against us with almost as much effect as if
+he'd pulled the outrage off."
+
+He had hardly finished speaking when Narayan Singh's great bulk
+darkened the doorway.  He closed the door behind him, as if
+afraid the other Sikhs might learn bad news.
+
+"It is true, sahib.  He was on the wall.  He is there again."
+
+"Have you seen him?"
+
+"Surely.  He makes signals to the men who are loading the donkeys
+now in the door of the barn.  It would be a difficult shot.  His
+head hardly shows between the battlements.  But I think I could
+hit him from the road below.  Shall I try?"
+
+"No, you'd only scare him into hiding if you miss.  Oh hell!
+There are three ways up on to the wall at that point.  There's no
+time to block them all--not if he's signalling now.  He'll see
+your men close in on the barn, sir, and beat it for the skyline.
+Oh, damn and blast the luck!"
+
+"At least we can try to cut him off," said Goodenough.  "I'll
+take some men myself and have a crack at it."
+
+"No use, sir.  You'd never catch sight of him.  I wish you'd let
+Narayan Singh take three men, make for the wall by the shortest
+way, and hunt him if it takes a week."
+
+"Why not?  All right.  D'you hear that, Narayan Singh?"
+
+"Atcha, sahib."
+
+"You understand?" said Grim.  "Keep him moving.  Keep after him."
+
+"Do the sahibs wish him alive or dead?"
+
+"Either way," said Goodenough.
+
+"If he's gone from the wall when you get there," Grim added,
+"bring us the news.  You'll know where to find us"
+
+"Atcha"
+
+The Sikh brought his rifle to the shoulder, faced about,
+marched out, chose three men from the platoon in the street,
+and vanished.
+
+"Too bad, too bad!" said Goodenough, but Grim did not answer.  He
+was swearing a blue streak under his breath.  The next to arrive
+on the scene was Suliman, grinning with delight because he had
+won all the money of the other urchins, but brimming with news in
+the bargain.  He considered a mere colonel of cavalry beneath
+notice, and addressed himself to Grim without ceremony.
+
+"My mother brought out oranges in baskets and set them on benches
+on both sides of the door.  Then she went in, and I heard her
+scream.  There was a fight inside."
+
+"D'you care to bet, sir?" asked Grim.
+
+"On what?"
+
+"I'll bet you a hundred piastres Scharnhoff has tried to make his
+get-away, and they've either killed him or tied him hand and
+foot.  Another hundred on top of that, that Scharnhoff offers to
+turn state witness, provided he's alive when we show up."
+
+"All right.  I'll bet you he hangs."
+
+"Are you coming with us, sir?"
+
+"Wouldn't miss it for a king's ransom."
+
+"The back way out, then."
+
+Grim beckoned the Sikhs into the room, left one man in there in
+charge of Suliman, who swore blasphemously at being left behind,
+and led the way down a passage that opened into an alley
+connecting with a maze of others like rat runs, mostly arched
+over and all smelly with the unwashed gloom of ages.  At the end
+of the last alley we entered was a flight of stone steps, up
+which we climbed to the roof of the house on which I had seen
+Grim the night before.
+
+There was a low coping on the side next the street, and some one
+had laid a lot of bundles of odds and ends against it;  lying
+down, we could look out between those without any risk of being
+seen from below, but Goodenough made the Sikhs keep well in the
+background and only we three peered over the edge.  About two
+hundred yards in front of us the Dome of the Rock glistened in
+the morning sun above the intervening roofs.  The street was
+almost deserted, although the guards at either end had been
+removed for fear of scaring away the conspirators.  We watched
+for about twenty minutes before any one passed but occasional
+beggars, some of whom stopped to wonder why oranges should stand
+on sale outside a door with nobody in charge of them.  Three
+separate individuals glanced right and left and then helped
+themselves pretty liberally from the baskets.
+
+But at last there came five donkeys very heavily loaded with
+oranges and raisins, in charge of six men, which was a more than
+liberal allowance.  When they stopped at the little stone house
+in front of us there was another thing noticeable;  instead of
+hitting the donkeys hard on the nose with a thick club, which is
+the usual way of calling a halt in Palestine, they went to the
+heads and stopped them reasonably gently.  So, although all six
+men were dressed to resemble peasants, they were certainly
+nothing of the kind.
+
+Nor were they such wide-awake conspirators as they believed
+themselves, for they were not in the least suspicious of six
+other men, also dressed as peasants, who followed them up-street,
+and sat down in full view with their backs against a wall.  Yet I
+could see quite plainly the scabbard of a bayonet projecting
+through a hole in the ragged cloak of the nearest of those
+casual wayfarers.
+
+They had to knock several minutes before the door opened
+gingerly;  then they off-loaded the donkeys, and it took two men
+to carry each basketful, with a third lending a hand in case of
+accident.  Only one man went back with the donkeys, and two of
+the casual loafers against the wall got up to saunter after him;
+the other five honest merchants went inside, and we heard the
+bolt shoot into its iron slot behind them.
+
+"How about it, Grim?" asked Goodenough then.
+
+"Ready, sir.  Will you give the order?"
+
+We filed in a hurry down the steps into the alley, ran in a zig-
+zag down three passages, and reached another alley with narrow
+door at its end that faced the street.  Grim had made every
+preparation.  There was a heavy baulk of timber lying near the
+door, with rope-handles knotted into holes bored through it at
+intervals.  The Sikhs picked that up and followed us into
+the street.
+
+The mechanism of the Administration's net was a thing to wonder
+at.  As we emerged through the door the "peasants" who were
+loafing with their backs against the wall got up and formed a
+cordon across the street.  Simultaneously, although I neither saw
+nor heard any signal, a dozen Sikhs under a British officer came
+down the street from the other direction at the double and formed
+up in line on our lefthand.  A moment later, our men were
+battering the door down with their baulk of timber, working all
+together as if they had practised the stunt thoroughly.
+
+It was a stout door, three inches thick, of ancient olivewood and
+reinforced with forged iron bands.  The hinges, too, had been
+made by hand in the days when, if a man's house was not his
+fortress, he might just as well own nothing;  they were cemented
+deep into the wall, and fastened to the door itself with half-
+inch iron rivets.  The door had to be smashed to pieces, and the
+noise we made would have warned the devils in the middle of
+the world.
+
+"We shouldn't have let them get in with any TNT at all," said
+Goodenough.  "They'll touch it off before we can prevent them."
+
+"Uh-uh!  They're not that kind," Grim answered.  "They'll fight
+for their skins.  Have your gun ready, sir.  They've laid their
+plans for a time-fuse and a quick getaway.  They'll figure the
+going may be good still if they can once get past us.  Look out
+for a rush!"
+
+But when the door went down at last in a mess of splinters
+there was no rush--nothing but silence--a dark, square, stone
+room containing two cots and a table, and fruit scattered all
+over the floor amid gray dust and fragments of cement.  Grim
+laughed curtly.
+
+"Look, sir!"
+
+The fruit-baskets were on the floor by one of the cots, and the
+TNT containers were still in them.  They had tipped out the
+fruit, and then run at the sound of the battering ram.
+
+Goodenough stepped into the room, and we followed him.  Beyond
+the table, half-hidden by a great stone slab, was a dark hole in
+the floor.  Evidently the last man through had tried to cover up
+the hole, but had found the stone too heavy.  The Sikhs dragged
+it clear and disclosed the mouth of a tunnel, rather less than a
+man's height, sloping sharply downward.
+
+"What we need now is mustard gas.  Smoke 'em out,"
+said Goodenough.
+
+"Might kill 'em," Grim objected.
+
+"That'd be too bad, wouldn't it!"
+
+"We could starve 'em out, for that matter," said Grim.  "But
+they've probably got water down there, and perhaps food.  Every
+hour of delay adds to the risk of rioting.  We've got to get this
+hole sealed up permanently, and deny that it was ever opened."
+
+"We could do that at once!  But I won't be a party to sealing 'em
+up alive."
+
+"Besides, sir, they've certainly got firearms, and they might
+just possible have one can of TNT down there."
+
+"All right," said Goodenough.  "I'll lead the way down."
+
+"I've a plan," said Grim.
+
+He took one of the fruit-baskets and began breaking it up.
+
+"Who has a white shirt?" he asked.
+
+I was the haberdasher.  The others, Sikhs included, were all
+clothed in khaki from coat to skin.  Grim's Bedouin array was
+dark-brown.  I peeled the shirt off, and Grim rigged it on a
+frame of basket-work, with a clumsy pitch-forked arrangement of
+withes at the bottom.  The idea was not obvious until he twisted
+the withes about his waist;  then, when he bent down, the shirt
+stood up erect above him.
+
+"If you don't mind, sir, we'll have two or three Sikhs go first.
+Have them take their boots off and crawl quietly as flat down as
+they can keep.  I'll follow 'em with this contraption.  They'll
+be able to see the white shirt dimly against the tunnel, and if
+they do any shooting they'll aim at that.  Then if the rest of
+you keep low behind me we've a good chance to rush them before
+they can do any damage."
+
+I never met a commanding officer more free from personal conceit
+than Goodenough, and as I came to know more of him later on that
+characteristic stood out increasingly.  He was not so much a man
+of ideas as one who could recognize them.  That done, he made use
+of his authority to back up his subordinates, claiming no credit
+for himself but always seeing to it that they got theirs.
+
+The result was that he was simultaneously despised and loved--
+despised by the self-advertising school, of which there are
+plenty in every army, and loved--with something like fanaticism
+by his junior officers and men.
+
+"I agree to that," he said simply, screwing in his monocle.  Then
+he turned and instructed the Sikhs in their own language.
+
+"You follow last," he said to me.  "Now--all ready?"
+
+He had a pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the other, but
+had to stow them both away again in order to crawl in the tunnel.
+Grim had no weapon in sight.  The two Sikhs who were to lead had
+stripped themselves of everything that might make a noise, but
+the others kept both boots and rifles, with bayonets fixed, for
+it did not much matter what racket they made.  In fact, the more
+noise we, who followed, made, the better, since that would draw
+attention from the Sikhs in front.  All we had to do was to keep
+our bodies below Grim's kite affair, out of the probable line
+of fire.
+
+Nevertheless, that dark hole was untempting.  A dank smell came
+out of it, like the breath of those old Egyptian tombs in which
+the bones of horses, buried with their masters, lie all about on
+shelves.  You couldn't see into it more than a yard or two, for
+the only light came through the doorway of the windowless room,
+and the tunnel led into the womb of rock where, perhaps, no light
+had been since Solomon's day.
+
+But the leading Sikhs went in without hesitation and got down on
+their bellies.  They might have been swallowed whole for all that
+I heard or saw of them from that minute.  You could guess why the
+Turks and Germans had not really craved to meet those fellows out
+in No-man's-land.
+
+Grim went in on all-fours like a weird animal, with my shirt
+dancing on its frame above his back.  Goodenough went next,
+peering through that window-pane monocle like a deep-sea fish.
+All the rest of the Sikhs went after him in Indian file, dragging
+their rifle-butts along the tunnel floor and making noise enough
+to remind you of the New York subway.
+
+I went in at the tail end, trying at intervals to peer around a
+khaki-covered Punjaub rump, alternately getting my head and
+fingers bruised by heels I could not see and a rifle-butt that
+only moved in jerks when you didn't expect it to.  My nose was
+bleeding at the end of ten yards.
+
+But you couldn't keep your distance.  Whenever the men in front
+checked at some obstruction or paused to listen, all those behind
+closed up;  and by the time those behind had run their noses
+against iron-shod heels the men in front were on their way again.
+You couldn't see a thing until you rammed your head into it, and
+then the sense of touch gave you a sort of sight suggestion, as
+when you see things in a dream.  As for sound, the tunnel acted
+like a whispering gallery, mixing all the noises up together, so
+that you could not guess whether a man had spoken, or a stone had
+fallen, or a pistol had gone off, or all three.
+
+Once or twice, when the line closed up on itself caterpillar-
+fashion, I was able to make out my white shirt dancing dimly;
+and once, where some trick of the tunnel sorted out the sounds, I
+caught a scrap of conversation.
+
+"D'you suppose they'll be able to see the shirt?"
+
+"God knows.  I can hardly make it out from here."
+
+"When it looks like the right time to you, sir, turn the
+flashlight on it."
+
+"All right.  God damn! Keep on going--you nearly knocked out
+my eye-glass!"
+
+Even over my shoulder, looking backward, I could see practically
+nothing, for what little light came in through the opening was
+swallowed by the first few yards.  There was a suspicion of
+paleness in the gloom behind, and the occasional suggestion of an
+outline of rough wall;  no more.
+
+Nor was the tunnel straight by any means.  It turned and twisted
+constantly;  and at every bend the men who originally closed it
+had built up a wall of heavy masonry that Scharnhoff had had to
+force his way through.  In those places the broken stones were
+now lying in the fairway, as you knew by the suffering when you
+came in contact with them;  some of the split-off edges were as
+sharp as glass.
+
+It was good fun, all the same, while it lasted.  If we had been
+crawling down a sewer, or a modern passage of any kind, the sense
+of danger and discomfort would, no doubt, have overwhelmed all
+other considerations.  But, even supposing Scharnhoff had been on
+a vain hunt, and the veritable Tomb of the Kings of Judah did not
+lie somewhere in the dark ahead of us, we were nevertheless under
+the foundations of Solomon's temple, groping our way into
+mysteries that had not been disclosed, perhaps, since the days
+when the Queen of Sheba came and paid her homage to the most
+wise king.  You could feel afraid, but you couldn't wish you
+weren't there.
+
+I have no idea how long it took to crawl the length of that black
+passage.  It seemed like hours.  I heard heavy footsteps behind
+me after a while.  Some one following in a hurry, who could see
+no better than we could, kept stumbling over the falling masonry;
+and once, when he fell headlong, I heard him swear titanically in
+a foreign tongue.  I called back to whoever it was to crawl
+unless he wanted to be shot, but probably the words were all
+mixed up in the tunnel echoes, for he came on as before.
+
+Then all at once Goodenough flashed on the light for a fraction
+of a second and the shirt showed like a phantom out of blackness.
+The instant answer to that was a regular volley of shots from in
+front.  The flash of several pistols lit up the tunnel, and
+bullets rattled off the walls and roof.  The shirt fell, shot
+loose from its moorings, and the leading Sikhs gave a shout as
+they started to rush forward.
+
+We all surged after them, but there was a sudden check, followed
+by a babel worse than when a dozen pi-dogs fight over a rubbish-
+heap.  You couldn't make head or tail of it, except that
+something desperate was happening in front, until suddenly a man
+with a knife in his hand, too wild with fear to use it, came
+leaping and scrambling over the backs of Sikhs, like a forward
+bucking the line.  The Sikh in front of me knelt upright and
+collared him round the knees.  The two went down together, I on
+top of both of them with blood running down my arm, for the man
+had started to use his knife at last, slashing out at random, and
+I rather think that slight cut he gave me saved the Sikh's life.
+But you can make any kind of calculation afterwards, about what
+took place in absolute darkness, without the least fear of being
+proven wrong.  And since the Sikh and I agreed on that point no
+other opinion matters.
+
+I think that between the two of us we had that man about
+nonplused, although we couldn't see.  I had his knife, and the
+Sikh was kneeling on his stomach, when a hundred and eighty
+pounds of bone and muscle catapulted at us from the rear and
+sprawled on us headlong, saved by only a miracle from skewering
+some one with a bayonet as he fell.
+
+He laughed while he fought, this newcomer, and even asked
+questions in the Sikh tongue.  He had my arm in a grip like a
+vise and wrenched at it until I cursed him.  Then he found a leg
+in the dark and nearly broke that, only to discover it was the
+other Sikh's.  Still laughing, as if blindfolded fighting was his
+meat and drink, he reached again, and this time his fingers
+closed on enemy flesh.  Judging by the yells, they hurt, too.
+
+There must have been at least another minute of cat-and-dog-fight
+struggling--hands being stepped on and throats clutched--before
+Goodenough rolled himself free from an antagonist in front and,
+groping for the flashlight, found it and flashed it on.  The
+first thing I recognized by its light was the face of Narayan
+Singh, with wonderful white teeth grinning through his black
+beard within six inches of my nose.
+
+"Damn you!" I laughed.  "You weigh a ton.  Get off--you nearly
+killed me!"
+
+"Nearly, in war-time, means a whole new life to lose, sahib.  Be
+pleased to make the most of it!" he answered.
+
+Within two minutes after that we had eight prisoners disarmed and
+subdued, some of them rather the worse for battery.  The amazing
+thing was that we hadn't a serious casualty among the lot of us.
+We could have totaled a square yard of skin, no doubt, and a
+bushel of bruises (if that is the way you measure them) but mine
+was the only knife-wound.  I felt beastly proud.
+
+By the light of the electric torch we dragged and prodded the
+prisoners back whence they had come, and presently Grim or
+somebody found a lantern and lit it.  We found ourselves in a
+square cavern--a perfect cube it looked like--about thirty feet
+wide each way.
+
+In the midst was a plain stone coffer with its lid removed and
+set on end against it.  In the coffer lay a tall man's skeleton,
+with the chin still bound in linen browned with age.  There were
+other fragments of linen here and there, but the skeleton's bones
+had been disturbed and had fallen more or less apart.
+
+Over in one corner were two large bundles done up in modern gunny-
+bags, and Grim went over to examine them.
+
+"Hello!" he said.  "Here's Scharnhoff and his lady friend!"
+
+He ripped the lashings of both bundles and disclosed the Austrian
+and the woman, gagged and tied, both almost unconscious from
+inability to breathe, but not much hurt otherwise.
+
+The Sikhs herded the prisoners, old alligator-eyes among them,
+into another corner.  Grim tore my shirt into strips to bandage
+my arm with.  Goodenough talked with Narayan Singh, while we
+waited for Scharnhoff to recover full consciousness.
+
+"Those murderers!" he gasped at last.  "Schweinehunde!"
+
+"Better spill the beans, old boy," Grim said, smiling down at
+him.  "You'll hang at the same time they do, if you can't tell a
+straight story."
+
+"Ach!  I do not care!  There were no manuscripts--nothing!  I
+don't know whose skeleton that is--some old king David, perhaps;
+for that is not David's real tomb that the guides show.  Hang
+those murderers and I am satisfied!"
+
+"Your story may help hang them.  Come on, out with it!"
+
+"Have you caught Noureddin Ali?"
+
+"Never mind!"
+
+"But I do mind!  And you should mind!"
+
+Scharnhoff sat up excitedly.  He was dressed in the Arab garments
+I had seen in his cupboard that day when Grim and I called on
+him, with a scholar's turban that made him look very distinguished
+in spite of his disarray.
+
+"That Noureddin Ali is a devil!  Together we would look for the
+Tomb of the Kings.  Together we would smuggle out the manuscripts
+--translate them together--publish the result together.  He lent
+me money.  He promised to bring explosives.  Oh, he was full of
+enthusiasm!  It was not until last night, when I had broken that
+last obstruction down and discovered nothing but this coffin,
+that I learned his real plan.  The devil intended all along to
+fill this tomb with high explosive and to destroy the mosque above,
+with everybody in it!  Curse him!"
+
+"Never mind cursing him," said Grim, "tell us the story."
+
+"He sent oranges here, all marked with the labels of a Zionist
+colony.  When I told him that the explosive would arrive too
+late, he said I should use it to smash these walls and find
+another tomb.  He himself disappeared, and when I questioned
+his men they told me the explosive would be brought in hidden
+under fruit in baskets.  I waited then in the hope of killing
+him myself--"
+
+"Hah-hah!" laughed Grim.
+
+"That is true!  But they bound me, and later on bound the woman,
+and laid us here to be blown up together with the mosque."
+
+Grim turned to Goodenough, who had been listening.
+
+"Do I win the bet, sir?"
+
+"Ten piastoes!" said Goodenough.  "Yes. Narayan Singh says
+Noureddin Ali was gone by the time they reached the wall."
+
+"Sure, or he'd have brought Noureddin Ali.  I've been thinking,
+sir.  We've one chance left to bag that buzzard.  Will you give
+me carte blanche?"
+
+"Yes.  Go ahead."
+
+Grim crossed the place to the corner where old alligator-eyes
+stood herded with the other prisoners.
+
+"Are you guilty?" he demanded.
+
+"No.  Guilty of nothing.  I came out of curiosity to see what was
+happening here."
+
+"Thought so.  Can you hold your tongue?  Then go!  Get out
+of here!"
+
+Alligator-eyes didn't wait for a second urging, nor stay to
+question his good luck, but went off in a shambling hurry.
+
+"You are mad!" exclaimed Scharnhoff.  "That man is the next-worst!"
+
+"Grim, are you sure that's wise?" asked Goodenough.
+
+"We can get him any time we want him, sir," Grim answered.  "He
+lacks Noureddin Ali's gift of slipperiness."
+
+He turned to Narayan Singh.
+
+"Follow that man, but don't let him know he's followed.  He'll
+show you where Noureddin Ali is.  Get him this time!"
+
+"Dead or alive, sahib?"
+
+"Either."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty
+
+"All men are equal in the dark."
+
+
+The first thing Goodenough did after Grim had sent Narayan Singh
+off on his deadly mission was to summon the sheikh of the Dome of
+the Rock.  He himself went to fetch him rather than risk having
+the sheikh bring a crowd of witnesses, who would be sure to talk
+afterwards.  The all-important thing was to conceal the fact that
+sacrilege had been committed.  But it was also necessary to
+establish the fact that Zionists had had no hand in it.
+
+"You see," Grim explained, sitting on the edge of the stone
+coffin, "we could hold Jerusalem.  But if word of this business
+were to spread far and wide, you couldn't hold two or three
+hundred million fanatics;  and believe me, they'd cut loose!"
+
+"The sheikh must realize that," said I.  "What do you bet me
+he won't try to black-mail the Administration on the strength
+of it?"
+
+"I'll bet you my job!  Watch the old bird.  Listen in.  He's
+downy.  He knows a chance when he sees it, and he might try
+to cheat you at dominoes.  But in a big crisis he's a number
+one man."
+
+While we waited we tried to get an opinion out of Scharnhoff
+about the coffin and the skeleton inside it.  But the old fellow
+was heart-broken.  I think he told the truth when he said he
+couldn't explain it.
+
+"What is there to say of it, except that it is very ancient?
+There is no decoration.  The coffin is beautifully shaped out of
+one solid piece of stone, but that is all.  The skeleton is that
+of an old man, who seems to have been wounded once or twice in
+battle.  The linen is good, but there is no jewelry;  no
+ornaments.  And it is buried here in a very sacred place, so
+probably, it is one of the Jewish kings, or else one of the
+prophets.  It might be King David--who knows?  And what do I
+care?  It is what a man sets down on parchment, and not his bones
+that interest me!"
+
+The sheikh arrived at last, following Goodenough down the dark
+passage with the supreme nonchalance of the priest too long
+familiar with sacred places to be thrilled or frightened by them.
+He stood in the entrance gazing about him, blinking speculatively
+through the folds of fat surrounding his bright eyes.  Goodenough
+took the lantern and held it close to the prisoners' faces one
+by one.
+
+"You see?" he said.  "All Syrians.  All Moslems.  Not a Jew among
+them.  I'll take you and show you the others presently."
+
+"What will you do with them?"
+
+"That's for a court to decide.  Hang them, most likely.  They
+were plotting murder."
+
+"They will talk at the trial."
+
+"Behind closed doors!" said Goodenough.
+
+"Ahum!" said the sheikh, stroking his beard.  It would not
+have been compatible with either his religion or his racial
+consciousness not to try to make the utmost of the situation.
+"This would be a bad thing for all the Christian governments if
+the tale leaked out.  Religious places have been desecrated.
+There would be inflammation of Moslem prejudices everywhere."
+
+"It would be worse for you!" Grim retorted.  The sheikh stared
+hard at him, stroking his beard again,
+
+"How so, Jimgrim?  Have I had a hand in this?"
+
+"This is your famous Bir-el-Arwah, where, as you tell your
+faithful, the souls of the dead come to pray twice a week.  This
+is the gulf beneath the Rock of Abraham that you tell them
+reaches to the middle of the world.  Look at it!  Shall we
+publish flashlight photographs?"
+
+The sheikh's eyes twinkled as he recognized the force of that
+argument.  He turned it over in his mind for a full minute before
+he answered.
+
+"You cannot be expected to understand spiritual things," he said
+at last.  "However," looking up, "this is not under the Rock.
+This is another place."
+
+Goodenough pulled a compass from his pocket, but Grim shook
+his head.
+
+"Go on," said Grim. "What of it?"
+
+"It is better to close up this place and say nothing."
+
+"Except this." Goodenough retorted:  "you will say at the first
+and every succeeding opportunity that you know it is not true
+that Zionists tried to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
+
+"How do I know they did not try?"
+
+"Perhaps we'd better ask the Administrator to come and inspect
+this place officially and put the exact facts on the record,"
+Goodenough retorted.
+
+"You understand, don't you?" said Grim.
+
+"Everything we've done until now has been strictly unofficial.
+There's a difference."
+
+"And this effendi?" he asked, staring at me.  "What of him?"
+
+"He is commended to your special benevolence," Grim answered.
+"The way to keep a man like him discreet is to make a friend of
+him.  Treat him as you do me, then we three shall be friends."
+
+The sheikh nodded, and that proved to be the beginning of a
+rather intimate acquaintance with him that stood me in good stead
+more than once afterwards.  The influence that a man in his
+position can exert, if he cares to, is almost beyond the belief
+of those who pin their faith to money and mere officialdom.
+
+The prisoners were marched out.  All except Scharnhoff and the
+woman were confirmed temporarily in the room in which Grim and I
+had breakfasted.  The woman was taken to the jail until an
+American missionary could be found to take charge of her.  They
+always hand the awkward cases over to Americans, partly because
+they have a gift for that sort of thing, but also because, in
+case of need, you can blame Americans without much risk of
+a reaction.
+
+Goodenough left a guard of Sikhs outside the street entrance, to
+keep out all intruders until the sheikh could collect a few
+trustworthy masons to seal up the passage again.  Grim,
+Scharnhoff and I walked quite leisurely to Grim's quarters, where
+Grim left the two of us together in the room downstairs while he
+changed into uniform.
+
+"What will they do with me?" asked Scharnhoff.  He was not far
+from collapse.  He lay back in the armchair with his mouth open.
+I got him some of Grim's whiskey.
+
+"Nothing ungenerous," I said.  "If you were going to be hanged
+Grim would have told you."
+
+"Do you--do you think he will let me go?"
+
+"Not until he's through with you," said I, "if I'm any judge
+of him."
+
+"What use can I be to him?  My life is not worth a minute's
+purchase if Noureddin Ali finds me--he or that other whom they
+let go.  Oh, what idiots to let Noureddin Ali give them the slip,
+and then to turn the second-worst one loose as well!  Those
+English are all mad.  That man Grim has been corrupted by them!"
+
+Grim hardly looked corrupted, rather iron-hard and energetic when
+he returned presently in his major's uniform.  You could tell the
+color of his eyes now;  they were blue-gray, and there was a
+light in them that should warn the wary not to oppose him unless
+a real fight was wanted.  His manner was brisk, brusk, striding
+over trifles.  He nodded to me.
+
+"You sick of this?" he asked me.
+
+"How many times?  I want to see it through."
+
+"All right.  Your own risk."
+
+He turned on Scharnhoff, standing straight in front of him, with
+both arms behind his back.
+
+"Look here.  Have you any decency in that body of yours?  Do you
+want to prove it?  Or would you rather hang like a common
+scoundrel?  Which is it to be?"
+
+"I--I--I--I--do not understand you.  What do you mean?"
+
+"Are you game to risk your neck decently or would you rather have
+the hangman put you out of pain?"
+
+"I--I was not a conspirator, Major Grim.  If I had known what
+they intended I would never have lent myself to such a purpose.
+I needed money for my excavations--it has been very difficult to
+draw on my bank in Vienna.  Noureddin Ali represented himself to
+me as an enthusiastic antiquarian;  and when I spoke of my need
+he offered money, as I told you already.  I never suspected until
+last night that he and Abdul Ali of Damascus are French secret
+agents.  But last night he boasted to me about Abdul Ali.  He
+laughed at me.  Then he--"
+
+"Yes, yes," Grim interrupted.  "Will you play the man now, if I
+give you the chance?"
+
+"If you will accord me opportunity, at least I will do my best."
+
+"Understand;  you'll not be allowed to live here afterward.
+You'll be repatriated to Austria, or wherever you come from.
+All you're offered is a chance to clean your slate morally before
+you go."
+
+"I shall be grateful."
+
+"Will you obey?"
+
+"Absolutely--to the limit of my power, that is to say.  I am not
+an athlete--not a man of active habits."
+
+"Very well.  Listen." Grim turned to me again
+
+"Take Scharnhoff to his house.  You know the way.  When afternoon
+comes, set a table in the garden and let him sit at it.  He may
+as well read.  If nothing happens before dark, take him out a
+lamp and some food.  He mustn't move away.  He'd better change
+into his proper clothes first.  Your job will be to keep an eye
+on him until I come.  You'd better keep out of sight as much as
+possible, especially after dark.  Better watch him through the
+window.  And, by the way, take this pistol.  If Scharnhoff
+disobeys you, shoot him."
+
+He turned again on Scharnhoff.
+
+"I hope you're not fooling yourself.  I should say the chance is
+two or three to one that you'll come out of this alive.  If
+you're killed, you may flatter yourself that's a mighty sight
+cleaner than hanging.  If you come out with a whole skin, you
+shall leave the country without even going to jail.  Time to
+go now."
+
+I slipped the heavy pistol into my pocket and led the way without
+saying a word.  Scharnhoff followed me, rather drearily, and we
+walked side by side toward the German Colony, he looking exactly
+like one of those respectable and devout educated Arabs of the
+old style, who teach from commentaries on the Koran.  We excited
+no comment whatever.
+
+"What will he do?  What is his purpose?" Scharnhoff asked me
+after a while.  "If a man is in danger of death, he likes to know
+the reason--the purpose of it."
+
+I had a better than faint glimmering of Grim's purpose, but saw
+no necessity to air my views on the subject.
+
+"I'm amused," said I, "at the strictly unofficial status of all
+this.  You see, I'm no more connected with this administration
+than you are.  I'm as alien as you.  You might say, I'm a
+stranger in Jerusalem.  Yet, here I am, with a perfectly official
+pistol, loaded with official cartridges, under unofficial orders
+to shoot you at the first sign of disobedience.  And--strictly
+unofficially, between you and me--I shan't hesitate to do it!"
+
+He contrived a smile out of the depths of his despondency.
+
+"I wonder--should you shoot me--what they would do to
+you afterwards."
+
+"Something unofficial," I suggested. "But we'll leave that up to
+them.  The point is--"
+
+"Oh, don't worry!  You shall have no trouble from me."  It took a
+long time to reach his house, for the poor old chap was suffering
+from lack of sleep, and physical weariness, as well as disappointment,
+and I had to let him sit down by the wayside once or twice.  Being
+in hard condition, and not much more than half his age, I had almost
+forgotten that I had not slept the night before.  Keen curiosity as
+to what might happen between now and midnight was keeping me going.
+
+He could hardly drag himself into the house.  But a bath, and
+some food that I found in the larder restored him considerably.
+He helped me carry out the table.  He chose a book of Schiller's
+poems to take with him, but did not read it;  he sat with his
+elbows on the table and his back toward the front door, resting
+his chin gloomily on both fists.  He remained in that attitude
+all afternoon, and for all I know slept part of the time.
+
+Between him and the window of the room I sat in were some shrubs
+that obscured the view considerably.  I could see Scharnhoff
+through them easily enough, but I don't think he could see me,
+and certainly no one could have seen me from the road.  I felt
+fairly sure that no one saw me until it began to grow dark and I
+carried out the lamp.  Even then, it was Scharnhoff who struck
+the match and lit it, so that I was in shadow all the time--
+probably unrecognizable.
+
+It had been fairly easy to keep awake until then, but as the room
+grew darker and darker, and nothing happened, the yearning to
+fall asleep became actual agony.  It was a rather large, square
+room, crowded up with a jumble of antiquities.  The only real
+furniture was the window-seat on which I knelt, and an oblong
+table;  but even the table was laid on its side to make room for
+a battered Roman bust standing on the floor between its legs.
+
+I had left the door of the room wide open, in order to be able to
+hear anything that might happen in the house;  but the only sound
+came from a couple of rats that gnawed and rustled interminably
+among the rubbish in the corner.
+
+It must have been nearly eight o'clock, and I believe I had
+actually dozed off at last, kneeling in the window, when all at
+once it seemed to me that the rats were making a different, and
+greater noise than I ever heard rats make.  It was pitch-black
+dark.  I couldn't see my hand in front of me.  My first thought
+was to glance through the window at Scharnhoff, but something--
+intuition, I suppose--made me draw aside from the window instead.
+
+Then, beyond any shadow of a doubt, I heard a man move, and
+the hair rose all up the back of my head.  I remembered
+the pistol, clutched it, and found voice enough for two words:
+"Who's there?"
+
+"Hee-hee!" came the answer from behind the table.  "So Major
+Jimgrim lied about a broken leg, and thought to trap Noureddin
+Ali, did he!  Don't move, Major Jimgrim!  Don't move!  We will
+have a little talk before we bid each other good-bye!  I cannot
+last long in any case, for the cursed Sikhs are after me.  I
+would rather that you should kill me than those Sikhs should, but
+I would like to kill you also.  If you move before I give you
+leave you are a dead man, Major Jimgrim!  Hee-hee!  You cannot
+see me!  Better keep still!"
+
+If it was flattering to be mistaken for Grim in the dark, it was
+hardly pleasant in the circumstances.  For a moment I was angry.
+It flashed across my mind that Grim had planned this.  But on
+second thought I refused to believe he would deceive me about
+Scharnhoff and use me as a decoy without my permission.  I
+decided to keep still and see what happened.
+
+"Do you think you deserve to live, Major Jimgrim?" Noureddin
+Ali's voice went on.  I heard him shift his position.  He was
+probably trying to see my outline against the dark wall in order
+to take aim.  "You, a foreigner, interfering in the politics of
+this land?  But for you there would have been an explosion today
+that would have liberated all the Moslem world.  But for that lie
+about a broken leg you would have died a little after ten o'clock
+this morning--hee-hee--instead of now!  Don't move, Major
+Jimgrim!  You and I will have a duel presently.  There is lots of
+time.  The Sikhs lost track of me."
+
+I did move.  I stooped down close to the floor, so that he might
+fire over my head if, as I suspected, he was merely gaining time
+in order to take sure aim.  I tried to see which end of the table
+he was talking from, but he was hidden completely.
+
+"Do you think you should go free, to perpetrate more cowardly
+interference, after spoiling that well-laid plan?  Hee-hee!  You
+poor fool!  Busy-bodies such as you invariably overreach
+themselves.  Having tricked me two or three times, you thought,
+didn't you? that you could draw me here to kill Scharnhoff, that
+poor old sheep.  You were careful, weren't you? to let Omar
+Mahmoud go, in order that he might tell me how Scharnhoff had
+turned witness against us.  And the Sikhs followed Omar Mahmoud,
+until Omar Mahmoud found me.  And then they hunted me.  Hee-hee!
+Don't move!  Was that the plan?  Simultaneously then, being
+yourself only a fool after all, you flatter me and underestimate
+my intelligence.  Hee-hee!
+
+"You were right in thinking I would not submit to capture and
+death without first wreaking vengeance.  But vengeance on such a
+sheep as Scharnhoff?  With Major Jimgrim still alive?  What
+possessed you?  Were you mad?  I satisfied myself an hour ago
+that Scharnhoff was the bait, which the redoubtable Major Jimgrim
+would be watching.  Perhaps I shall deal with Scharnhoff
+afterwards--hee-hee!--who knows?  Now--now shall we fight that
+duel?  Are you ready?"
+
+I supposed that meant that he could not see me and had given up
+hope of it.  He would like to have me move first, so as to judge
+my exact whereabouts by sound.  I reached out very cautiously,
+and rapped the muzzle of my pistol on the floor twice.
+
+He fired instantly, three shots in succession.  The bullets went
+wild to my left and brought down showers of plaster from the
+wall.  I feared he might have seen me by the pistol-flash.  I did
+not fire back.  There was no need.  Something moved swiftly like
+a black ghost through the open door.  There was a thud--and the
+ring of a steel swivel--and a scream.
+
+"Has the sahib a match?" said a gruff voice that I thought
+I recognized.
+
+I was trembling--excitement, of course--only children and women
+and foreigners ever feel afraid!  It took me half a minute to
+find the match box, and the other half to strike a light.
+
+Narayan Singh was standing by the end of the table.  He was
+wiping blood off his bayonet with a piece of newspaper.  He
+looked cool enough to have carried the paper in his pocket for
+that purpose.  I got up, feeling ashamed to be seen crouching on
+the floor.  But Narayan Singh smiled approval.
+
+"You did well, sahib.  All men are equal in the dark.  Until he
+fired first there was nothing wise to do but hide."
+
+"How long have you been here?" I asked.
+
+"Five minutes.  I only waited for a sure thrust.  But hah? the
+sahib feels like a dead man come to life again, eh?  Well I know
+that feeling!"
+
+The match burned my fingers.  I struck another.  As I did that
+Grim stood in the doorway, smiling.
+
+"Is he dead?" he asked.
+
+"Surely, sahib.  Shall I go now and get that other one--that
+Omar Mahmoud?"
+
+"No need," said Grim.  "They rounded him up five minutes after he
+had found Noureddin."
+
+"Then have I done all that was required of me?"
+
+"No, Narayan Singh.  You haven't shaken hands with me yet."
+
+"Thank you, Jimgrim."
+
+The match went out.  I struck a third one.  Grim turned to me.
+
+"Hungry?"
+
+"Sleepy."
+
+"Oh, to hell with sleep!  Let's bring old Scharnhoff into the
+other room, dig out some eats and drinks, and get a story from
+him.  All right, Narayan Singh;  there'll be a guard here in
+ten minutes to take charge of that body.  After that, dismiss.
+I'll report you to Colonel Goodenough for being a damned
+good soldier."
+
+"My colonel sahib knew that years ago," the great Sikh answered
+quietly.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Jimgrim and Allah's Peace, by Talbot Mundy
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11357 ***
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f0e63c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #11357 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11357)
diff --git a/old/11357.txt b/old/11357.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..772b210
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11357.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10178 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimgrim and Allah's Peace, by Talbot Mundy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jimgrim and Allah's Peace
+
+Author: Talbot Mundy
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2004 [EBook #11357]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMGRIM AND ALLAH'S PEACE ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JIMGRIM AND ALLAH'S PEACE
+
+by Talbot Mundy
+
+
+
+To Jimgrim:  whose real name, rank, and military distinctions,
+I promised never to make public.
+
+
+Contents
+
+I.  "Look for a man named Grim."
+II.  "No objection;  Only a stipulation."
+III.  "Do whatever the leader of the escort tells you."
+IV.  "I am willing to use all means--all methods."
+V.  "D'you mind if I use you?"
+VI.  "That man will repay study."
+VII.  "Who gives orders to me?"
+VIII.  "He will say next that it was he who set the stars in the
+sky over El-Kerak, and makes the moon rise!"
+IX.  "Feet downwards, too afraid to yell"--
+X.  "Money doesn't weigh much!"
+XI.  "And the rest of the acts of Ahaziah--"
+XII.  "You know you'll get scuppered if you're found out!"
+XIII.  "You may now be unsafe and an outlaw and enjoy yourself!"
+XIV.  "Windy bellies without hearts in them."
+XV.  "I'll have nothing to do with it!"
+XVI.  "The enemy is nearly always useful if you leave him free to
+make mistakes."
+XVII.  "Poor old Scharnhoff's in the soup."
+XVIII.  "But we're ready for them."
+XIX.  "Dead or Alive, Sahib."
+XX.  "All men are equal in the dark."
+------------
+
+
+
+
+Chapter One
+
+"Look for a man named Grim."
+
+
+There is a beautiful belief that journalists may do exactly as
+they please, and whenever they please.   Pleasure with violet
+eyes was in Chicago.  My passport describes me as a journalist.
+My employer said:  "Go to Jerusalem."  I went, that was in 1920.
+
+I had been there a couple of times before the World War, when the
+Turks were in full control.  So I knew about the bedbugs and the
+stench of the citadel moat;  the pre-war price of camels;  enough
+Arabic to misunderstand it when spoken fluently, and enough of
+the Old Testament and the Koran to guess at Arabian motives,
+which are important, whereas words are usually such stuff as lies
+are made of.
+
+El Kudz, as Arabs call Jerusalem, is, from a certain distance, as
+they also call it, shellabi kabir.  Extremely beautiful.
+Beautiful upon a mountain.  El Kudz means The City, and in a
+certain sense it is that, to unnumbered millions of people.
+Ludicrous, uproarious, dignified, pious, sinful, naively
+confidential, secretive, altruistic, realistic.  Hoary-ancient
+and ultra-modern.  Very, very proud of its name Jerusalem, which
+means City of Peace.  Full to the brim with the malice of
+certainly fifty religions, fifty races, and five hundred thousand
+curious political chicaneries disguised as plans to save our
+souls from hell and fill some fellow's purse.  The jails
+are full.
+
+"Look for a man named Grim," said my employer.  "James Schuyler
+Grim, American, aged thirty-four or so.  I've heard he knows
+the ropes."
+
+The ropes, when I was in Jerusalem before the war, were
+principally used for hanging people at the Jaffa Gate, after they
+had been well beaten on the soles of their feet to compel them to
+tell where their money was hidden.  The Turks entirely understood
+the arts of suppression and extortion, which they defined as
+government.  The British, on the other hand, subject their normal
+human impulse to be greedy, and their educated craving to be
+gentlemanly white man's burden-bearers, to a process of compromise.
+Perhaps that isn't government.  But it works.  They even carry
+compromise to the point of not hanging even their critics if
+they can possibly avoid doing it.  They had not yet, but they
+were about to receive a brand-new mandate from a brand-new
+League of Nations, awkwardly qualified by Mr. Balfour's
+post-Armistice promise to the Zionists to give the country to
+the Jews, and by a war-time promise, in which the French had
+joined, to create an Arab kingdom for the Arabs.
+
+So there was lots of compromising being done, and hell to pay,
+with no one paying, except, of course, the guests in the hotels,
+at New York prices.  The Zionist Jews were arriving in droves.
+The Arabs, who owned most of the land, were threatening to cut
+all the Jews' throats as soon as they could first get all their
+money.  Feisal, a descendant of the Prophet, who had fought
+gloriously against the Turks, was romantically getting ready in
+Damascus to be crowned King of Syria.  The French, who pride
+themselves on being realistic, were getting ready to go after
+Feisal with bayonets and poison-gas, as they eventually did.
+
+In Jerusalem the Bolsheviks, astonishingly credulous of "secret"
+news from Moscow, and skeptical of every one's opinion but their
+own, were bolsheviking Marxian Utopia beneath a screen of such
+arrogant innocence that even the streetcorner police constables
+suspected them.  And Mustapha Kemal, in Anatolia, was rumoured to
+be preparing a holy war.  It was known as a Ghazi in those
+days.  He had not yet scrapped religion.  He was contemplating,
+so said rumour, a genuine old-fashioned moslem jihad, with
+modern trimmings.
+
+A few enthusiasts astonishingly still laboured for an American
+mandate.  At the Holy Sepulchre a British soldier stood on guard
+with bayonet and bullets to prevent the priests of rival creeds
+from murdering one another.  The sun shone and so did the stars.
+General Bols reopened Pontius Pilate's water-works.  The learned
+monks in convents argued about facts and theories denied by
+archaeologists.  Old-fashioned Jews wailed at the Wailing Wall.
+Tommy Atkins blasphemously dug corpses of donkeys and dogs from
+the Citadel moat.
+
+I arrived in the midst of all that, and spent a couple of months
+trying to make head or tail of it, and wondering, if that was
+peace, what war is?  They say that wherever a man was ever slain
+in Palestine a flower grows.  So one gets a fair idea of the
+country's mass-experience without much difficulty.  For three
+months of the year, from end to end, the whole landscape is
+carpeted with flowers so close together that, except where beasts
+and men have trodden winding tracks, one can hardly walk without
+crushing an anemone or wild chrysanthemum.  There are more
+battle-fields in that small land than all Europe can show.  There
+are streams everywhere that historians assert repeatedly "ran
+blood for days."
+
+Five thousand years of bloody terrorism, intermingling of races,
+piety, plunder, politics and pilgrims, have produced a self-
+consciousness as concentrated as liquid poison-gas.  The laughter
+is sarcastic, the humour sardonic, and the credulity beyond
+analysis.  For instance, when I got there, I heard the British
+being accused of "imperialistic savagery" because they had
+removed the leprous beggars from the streets into a clean place
+where they could receive medical treatment.
+
+It was difficult to find one line of observation.  Whatever
+anybody told you, was reversed entirely by the next man.  The
+throat-distorting obligation to study Arabic called for rather
+intimate association with educated Arabs, whose main obsession
+was fear of the Zionist Jews.  The things they said against
+the Jews turned me pro-Zionist.  So I cautiously made the
+acquaintance of some gentlemen with gold-rimmed spectacles, and
+the things they said about the Arabs set me to sympathizing with
+the sons of Ishmael again.
+
+In the midst of that predicament I met Jimgrim--Major James
+Schuyler Grim, to give him his full title, although hardly any
+one ever called him by it.  After that, bewilderment began to
+cease as, under his amused, painstaking fingers, thread after
+thread of the involved gnarl of plots and politics betrayed
+its course.
+
+However, first I must tell how I met him.  There is an American
+Colony in Jerusalem--a community concern that runs a one-price
+store, and is even more savagely criticized than the British
+Administration, as is only natural.  The story of what they did
+in the war is a three-year epic.  You can't be "epic" and not
+make enemies.
+
+A Chicago Jew assured me they were swine and horse-thieves.  But
+I learned that the Yemen Jews prayed for them--first prayer--
+every Sabbath of the year, calling down blessings on their heads
+for charitable service rendered.
+
+One hardly goes all the way to Palestine to meet Americans;  but
+a journalist can't afford to be wilfully ignorant.  A British
+official assured me they were "good blokes" and an Armenian told
+me they could skin fleas for their hides and tallow;  but the
+Armenian was wearing a good suit, and eating good food, which he
+admitted had been given to him by the American Colony.  He was
+bitter with them because they had refused to cash a draft on
+Mosul, drawn on a bank that had ceased to exist.
+
+It seemed a good idea to call on the American Colony, at their
+store near the Jaffa Gate, and it turned out to be a very clean
+spot in a dirty city.  I taxed their generosity, and sat for
+hours on a ten-thousand-dollar pile of Asian rugs behind the
+store;  and, whatever I have missed and lost, or squandered, at
+least I know their story and can keep it until the proper time.
+
+Of course, you have to allow for point of view, just as the
+mariner allows for variation and deviation;  but when they
+inferred that most of the constructive good that has come to the
+Near East in the last fifty years has been American, they spoke
+with the authority of men who have lived on the spot and watched
+it happen.
+
+"You see, the Americans who have come here haven't set up
+governments.  They've opened schools and colleges.  They've
+poured in education, and taken nothing.  Then there are thousands
+of Arabs, living in hovels because there's nothing better, who
+have been to America and brought back memories with them.  All
+that accounts for the desire for an American mandate--which would
+be a very bad thing, though, because the moment we set up a
+government we would lose our chance to be disinterested.  The
+country is better off under any other mandate, provided it gives
+Americans the right to teach without ruling.  America's mission
+is educational.  There's an American, though, who might seem to
+prove the contrary.  Do you see him?"
+
+There were two Arabs in the room, talking in low tones over by
+the window. I could imagine the smaller of the two as a peddler
+of lace and filigree-silver in the States, who had taken out
+papers for the sake of privilege and returned full of notions to
+exploit his motherland.  But the tall one--never.  He was a
+Bedouin, if ever a son of the desert breathed.  If he had visited
+the States, then he had come back as unchanged as gold out of an
+acid bath;  and as for being born there--
+
+"That little beady-eyed, rat-faced fellow may be an American," I
+said.  "In fact, of course he is, since you say so.  But as for
+being up to any good--"
+
+"You're mistaken.  You're looking at the wrong man.  Observe the
+other one."
+
+I was more than ever sure I was not mistaken.  Stately gesture,
+dignity, complexion, attitude--to say nothing of his Bedouin
+array and the steadiness with which he kept his dark eyes fixed
+on the smaller man he was talking to, had laid the stamp of the
+desert on the taller man from head to heel.
+
+"That tall man is an American officer in the British army.
+Doesn't look the part, eh?  They say he was the first American to
+be granted a commission without any pretense of his being a
+Canadian.  They accepted him as an American.  It was a case of
+that or nothing.  Lived here for years, and knew the country so
+well that they felt they had to have him on his own terms."
+
+
+You can believe anything in Jerusalem after you have been in the
+place a week or two, so, seeing who my informant was, I swallowed
+the fact.  But it was a marvel.  It seemed even greater when the
+man strolled out, pausing to salute my host with the solemn
+politeness that warfare with the desert breeds.  You could not
+imagine that at Ellis Island, or on Broadway--even on the stage.
+It was too untheatrical to be acting;  too individual to be
+imitation;  to unself-conscious to have been acquired.  I
+hazarded a guess.
+
+"A red man, then.  Carlisle for education.  Swallowed again by
+the first desert he stayed in for more than a week."
+
+"Wrong.  His name is Grim.  Sounds like Scandinavian ancestry, on
+one side.  James Schuyler Grim--Dutch, then, on the other;  and
+some English.  Ten generations in the States at any rate.  He can
+tell you all about this country.  Why not call on him?"
+
+It did not need much intelligence to agree to that suggestion;
+but the British military take their code with them to the
+uttermost ends of earth, behind which they wonder why so many
+folks with different codes, or none, dislike them.
+
+"Write me an introduction," I said.
+
+"You won't need one.  Just call on him.  He lives at a place they
+call the junior Staff Officers' Mess--up beyond the Russian
+Convent and below the Zionist Hospital."
+
+So I went that evening, finding the way with difficulty because
+they talk at least eighteen languages in Jerusalem and, with the
+exception of official residences, no names were posted anywhere.
+That was not an official residence.  It was a sort of communal
+boarding-house improvised by a dozen or so officers in preference
+to the bug-laden inconvenience of tents--in a German-owned
+(therefore enemy property) stone house at the end of an alley, in
+a garden full of blooming pomegranates.
+
+I sent my card in by a flat-footed old Russian female, who ran
+down passages and round corners like a wet hen, trying to find a
+man-servant.  The place seemed deserted, but presently she came
+on her quarry in the back yard, and a very small boy in a
+tarboosh and knickerbockers carried the card on a tray into a
+room on the left.  Through the open door I could hear one quiet
+question and a high-pitched disclaimer of all knowledge;  then an
+order, sounding like a grumble, and the small boy returned to the
+hall to invite me in, in reasonably good English, of which he
+seemed prouder than I of my Arabic.
+
+So I went into the room on the left, with that Bedouin still in
+mind.  There was only one man in there, who got out of a deep
+armchair as I entered, marking his place in a book with a
+Damascus dagger.  He did not look much more than middle height,
+nor more than medium dark complexioned, and he wore a major's
+khaki uniform.
+
+"Beg pardon," I said.  "I've disturbed the wrong man.  I came to
+call on an American named Major Grim."
+
+"I'm Grim."
+
+"Must be a mistake, though.  The man I'm looking for is taller
+than you--very dark--looks, walks, speaks and acts like a
+Bedouin.  I saw him this afternoon in Bedouin costume in the
+American Colony store."
+
+"Yes, I noticed you.  Sit down, won't you?  Yes, I'm he--the
+Bedouin abayi* seems to add to a man's height.  Soap and water
+account for the rest of it.  These cigars are from the States."
+[*Long-sleeved outer cloak.]
+
+It was hard to believe, even on the strength of his straight
+statement--he talking undisguised American, and smiling at me, no
+doubt vastly pleased with my incredulity.
+
+"Are you a case of Jekyll and Hyde?" I asked.
+
+"No.  I'm more like both sides of a sandwich with some army mule-
+meat in the middle.  But I won't be interviewed.  I hate it.
+Besides, it's against the regulations."
+
+His voice was not quite so harshly nasal as those of the Middle
+West, but he had not picked up the ultra-English drawl and
+clipped-off consonants that so many Americans affect abroad
+and overdo.
+
+I don't think a wise crook would have chosen him as a subject for
+experiments.  He had dark eyes with noticeably long lashes;
+heavy eyebrows;  what the army examination-sheets describe as a
+medium chin;  rather large hands with long, straight fingers;
+and feet such as an athlete stands on, fully big for his size,
+but well shaped.  He was young for a major--somewhere between
+thirty and thirty-five.
+
+Once he was satisfied that I would not write him up for the
+newspapers he showed no disinclination to talk, although it was
+difficult to keep him on the subject of himself, and easy to let
+him lose you in a maze of tribal history.  He seemed to know the
+ins and outs of every blood-feud from Beersheba to Damascus, and
+warmed to his subject as you listened.
+
+"You see," he said, by way of apology when I laughed at a string
+of names that to me conjured up only confusion, "my beat is all
+the way from Cairo to Aleppo--both sides of the Jordan.  I'm not
+on the regular strength, but attached to the Intelligence--no,
+not permanent--don't know what the future has in store--that
+probably depends on whether or not the Zionists get full control,
+and how soon.  Meanwhile, I'm my own boss more or less--report
+direct to the Administrator, and he's one of those men who allows
+you lots of scope."
+
+That was the sort of occasional glimpse he gave of himself, and
+then switched off into straight statements about the Zionist
+problem.  All his statements were unqualified, and given with the
+air of knowing all about it right from the beginning.
+
+"There's nothing here that really matters outside the Zionist-
+Arab problem.  But that's a big one.  People don't realize it--
+even on the spot--but it's a world movement with ramifications
+everywhere.  All the other politics of the Near East hinge on it,
+even when it doesn't appear so on the surface.  You see, the Jews
+have international affiliations through banks and commerce.  They
+have blood-relations everywhere.  A ripple here may mean there's
+a wave in Russia, or London, or New York.  I've known at least
+one Arab blood-feud over here that began with a quarrel between a
+Jew and a Christian in Chicago."
+
+"Are the Zionists as dangerous as the Arabs seem to think?" I asked.
+
+"Yes and no.  Depends what you call danger.  They're like an
+incoming tide.  All you can do is accept the fact and ride on top
+of it, move away in front of it, or go under.  The Arabs want to
+push it back with sword-blades.  Can't be done!"
+
+"Speaking as a mere onlooker, I feel sorry for the Arabs," I
+said.  "It has been their country for several hundred years.
+They didn't even drive the Jews out of it;  the Romans attended
+to that, after the Assyrians and Babylonians had cleaned up
+nine-tenths of the population.  And at that, the Jews were
+invaders themselves."
+
+"Sure," Grim answered.  "But you can't argue with tides.  The
+Arabs are sore, and nobody has any right to blame them.  The
+English betrayed the Arabs--I don't mean the fellows out here,
+but the gang at the Foreign Office."
+
+I glanced at his uniform.  That was a strange statement coming
+from a man who wore it.  He understood, and laughed.
+
+"Oh, the men out here all admit it.  They're as sore as the Arabs
+are themselves."
+
+"Then you're on the wrong side, and you know it?" I suggested.
+
+"The meat," he said, "is in the middle of the sandwich.  In a
+small way you might say I'm a doctor, staying on after a riot to
+stitch up cuts.  The quarrel was none of my making, although I
+was in it and did what I could to help against the Turks.  Like
+everybody else who knows them, I admire the Turks and hate what
+they stand for--hate their cruelty.  I was with Lawrence across
+the Jordan--went all the way to Damascus with him--saw the war
+through to a finish--in case you choose to call it finished."
+
+Vainly I tried to pin him down to personal reminiscences.  He was
+not interested in his own story.
+
+"The British promised old King Hussein of Mecca that if he'd
+raise an Arab army to use against the Turks, there should be a
+united Arab kingdom afterward under a ruler of their own
+choosing.  The kingdom was to include Syria, Arabia and
+Palestine.  The French agreed.  Well, the Arabs raised the army;
+Emir Feisul, King Hussein's third son, commanded it;  Lawrence
+did so well that he became a legend.  The result was, Allenby
+could concentrate his army on this side of the Jordan and
+clean up.  He made a good job of it.  The Arabs were naturally
+cock-a-hoop."
+
+I suggested that the Arabs with that great army could have
+enforced the contract, but he laughed again.
+
+"They were being paid in gold by the British, and had Lawrence to
+hold them together.  The flow of gold stopped, and Lawrence was
+sent home.  Somebody at the Foreign Office had changed his mind.
+You see, they were all taken by surprise at the speed of
+Allenby's campaign.  The Zionists saw their chance, and claimed
+Palestine.  No doubt they had money and influence.  Perhaps it
+was Jewish gold that had paid the wages of the Arab army.
+Anyhow, the French laid claim to Syria.  By the time the war was
+over the Zionists had a hard-and-fast guarantee, the French claim
+to Syria had been admitted, and there wasn't any country left
+except some Arabian desert to let the Arabs have.  That's the
+situation.  Feisul is in Damascus, going through the farce of
+being proclaimed king, with the French holding the sea-ports and
+getting ready to oust him.  The Zionists are in Jerusalem,
+working like beavers, and the British are getting ready to pull
+out as much as possible and leave the Zionists to do their own
+worrying.  Mesopotamia is in a state of more or less anarchy.
+Egypt is like a hot-box full of explosive--may go off any minute.
+The Arabs would like to challenge the world to mortal combat,
+and then fight one another while the rest of the world pays
+the bill--"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"The French, for instance.  Their army is weak at the moment.
+They've neither men nor money--only a hunger to own Syria.  They
+don't play what the English call 'on side.'  They play a mean
+game.  The French General Staff figure that if Feisul should
+attack them now he might beat them.  So they've conceived the
+brilliant idea of spreading sedition and every kind of political
+discontent into Palestine and across the Jordan, so that if the
+Arabs make an effort they'll make it simultaneously in both
+countries.  Then the British, being in the same mess with the
+French, would have to take the French side and make a joint
+campaign of it."
+
+"But don't the British know this?"
+
+"You bet they know it.  What's the Intelligence for?  The French
+are hiring all the Arab newspapers to preach against the British.
+A child could see it with his eyes shut."
+
+"Then why in thunder don't the British have a showdown?"
+
+"That's where the joker comes in.  The French know there's a sort
+of diplomatic credo at the London Foreign Office to the general
+effect that England and France have got to stand together or
+Europe will go to pieces.  The French are realists.  They bank
+on that.  They tread on British corns, out here, all they want
+to, while they toss bouquets, backed by airplanes, across the
+English Channel."
+
+"Then the war didn't end the old diplomacy?"
+
+"What a question!  But I haven't more than scratched the Near
+East surface for you yet.  There's Mustapha Kemal in Anatolia,
+leader of the Turkish Nationalists, no more dead or incapacitated
+than a possum.  He's playing for his own hand--Kaiser Willy
+stuff--studying Trotzky and Lenin, and flirting with Feisul's
+party on the side.  Then there's a Bolshevist element among the
+Zionists--got teeth, too.  There's an effort being made from
+India to intrigue among the Sikh troops employed in Palestine.
+There's a very strong party yelling for an American mandate.  The
+Armenians, poor devils, are pulling any string they can get hold
+of, in the hope that anything at all may happen.  The orthodox
+Jews are against the Zionists;  the Arabs are against them both,
+and furious with one another.  There's a pan-Islam movement on
+foot, and a pan-Turanian--both different, and opposed.  About 75
+per cent of the British are as pro-Arab as they dare be, but the
+rest are strong for the Zionists.  And the Administrator's
+neutral!--strong for law and order but taking no sides."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I'm one of the men who is trying to keep the peace."
+
+He invited me to stay to dinner.  The other members of the mess
+were trooping in, all his juniors, all obviously fond of him
+and boisterously irreverent of his rank.  Dinner under his
+chairmanship was a sort of school for repartee.  It was utterly
+unlike the usual British mess dinner.  If you shut your eyes for
+a minute you couldn't believe that any one present had ever worn
+a uniform.  I learned afterward that there was quite a little
+competition to get into that mess.
+
+After dinner most of them trooped out again, to dance with
+Zionist ladies at an institute affair.  But he and I stayed, and
+talked until midnight.  Before I left, the key of Palestine and
+Syria was in my hands.
+
+"You seem interested," he said, coming with me to the door.  "If
+you don't mind rough spots now and then, I'll try to show you a
+few things at first hand."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Two
+
+"No objection;  only a stipulation."
+
+
+The showmanship began much sooner than I hoped.  The following
+day was Sunday, and I had an invitation to a sort of semi-public
+tea given by the American Colony after their afternoon religious
+service.
+
+They received their guests in a huge, well-furnished room on the
+upper floor of a stone house built around a courtyard filled with
+flowers.  I think they were a little proud of the number of
+fierce-looking Arabs, who had traveled long distances in order to
+be present.  Ten Arab chieftains in full costume, with fifteen or
+twenty of their followers, all there at great expense of trouble,
+time and money, for friends sake, were, after all, something to
+feel a bit chesty about.  Every member of the Colony seemed able
+to talk Arabic like a native and, as they used to say in the up-
+state papers, a good time was being had by all.  The Near East
+adores ice-cream, and there was lots of it.
+
+Two of the Arab chiefs were Christians;  the rest were not.  The
+peace and war record of the Colony was what had brought them all
+there.  Hardly an Arab in the country was not the Colony's debtor
+for disinterested help, direct or indirect, at some time in some
+way.  The American Colony was the one place in the country where
+a man of any creed could go and be sure that whatever he might
+say would not be used against him.  So they were talking their
+heads off.  Hot air and Arab politics have quite a lot in common.
+But there was a broad desert-breath about it all.  It wasn't like
+the little gusty yaps you hear in the city coffee-shops.  A lot
+of the talk was foolish, but it was all magnificent.
+
+There was one sheikh named Mustapha ben Nasir dressed in a blue
+serge suit and patent-leather boots, with nothing to show his
+nationality except a striped silk head-dress with the camel-hair
+band around the forehead.  He was a handsome fellow, with a black
+beard trimmed to a point, and perfect manners, polished no doubt
+in a dozen countries, but still Eastern in slow, deferential
+dignity.  He could talk good French.  I fell in conversation
+with him.
+
+The frankness with which treason is mooted, admitted and
+discussed in the Near East is one of the first things that amaze
+you.  They are so open about it that nobody takes them seriously.
+Apparently it is only when they don't talk treason openly that
+the ruling authorities get curious and make arrests.  To me, a
+total stranger, with nothing to recommend me but that for an hour
+or two that afternoon I was a guest of the American Colony,
+Mustapha ben Nasir made no bones whatever about the fact that the
+was being paid by the French to stir up feeling over Jordan
+against the British.
+
+"I receive a monthly salary," he boasted.  "I am just from
+Damascus, where the French Liaison-officer paid me and gave me
+some instructions."
+
+"Where is your home?" I asked him.
+
+"At El-Kerak, in the mountains of Moab, across the Dead Sea.  I
+start this evening.  Will you come with me?"
+
+"Je m'en bien garderai!"
+
+He smiled.  "Myself, I am in favor of the British.  The French
+pay my expenses, that is all.  What we all want is an independent
+Arab government--some say kingdom, some say republic.  If it is
+not time for that yet, then we would choose an American mandate.
+But America has deserted us.  Failing America, we prefer the
+English for the present.  Anything except France!  We do not want
+to become a new Algeria."
+
+"What is the condition now at El-Kerak?"
+
+"Condition?  There is none.  There is chaos.  You see, the
+British say their authority ceases at the River Jordan and at a
+line drawn down the middle of the Dead Sea.  That leaves us with
+a choice between two other governments--King Hussein's government
+of Mecca, and Feisul's in Syria.  But Hussein's arm is not long
+enough to reach us from the South, and Feisul's is not nearly
+strong enough to interfere from the North.  So there is
+no government, and each man is keeping the peace with his
+own sword."
+
+"You mean;  each man on his own account?"
+
+"Yes.  So there is peace.  Five--fifteen--thirty throats are cut
+daily;  and if you go down to the Jordan and listen, you will
+hear the shots being fired from ambush any day."
+
+"And you invite me to make the trip with you?"
+
+"Oh, that is nothing.  In the first place, you are American.
+Nobody will interfere with an American.  They are welcome.  In
+the second place, there is a good reason for bringing you;  we
+all want an American school at El-Kerak."
+
+"But I am no teacher."
+
+"But you will be returning to America?  It is enough, then, that
+you look the situation over, and tell what you know on your
+return.  We will provide a building, a proper salary, and
+guarantee the teacher's life.  We would prefer a woman, but it
+would be wisest to send a man."
+
+"How so?  The woman might not shoot straight?  I've some of our
+Western women do tricks with a gun that would--"
+
+"There would be no need.  She would have our word of honour.  But
+every sheikh who has only three wives would want to make her his
+fourth.  A man would be best.  Will you come with me?"
+
+"On your single undertaking to protect me?  Are you king of all
+that countryside?"
+
+"If you will come, you shall have an escort, every man of whom
+will die before he would let you be killed.  And if they, and
+you, should all be killed, their sons and grandsons would avenge
+you to the third generation of your murderers."
+
+"That's undoubtedly handsome, but--"
+
+"Believe me, effendi," he urged, "many a soul has been consoled
+in hell-fire by the knowledge that his adversaries would be cut
+off in their prime by friends who are true to their given word."
+
+Meaning to back out politely, I assured him I would think the
+offer over.
+
+"Well and good," he answered.  "You have my promise.  Should you
+decide to come, leave word here with the American Colony.  They
+will get word to me.  Then I will send for you, and the escort
+shall meet you at the Dead Sea."
+
+I talked it over with two or three members of the Colony, and
+they assured me the promise could be depended on.  One of
+them added:
+
+"Besides, you ought to see El-Kerak.  It's an old crusader city,
+rather ruined, but more or less the way the crusaders left it.
+And that craving of theirs for a school is worth doing something
+about, if you ever have an opportunity.  They say they have too
+much religion already, and no enlightenment at all.  A teacher
+who knew Arabic would have a first-class time, and would be well
+paid and protected, if he could keep his hands off politics.  Why
+not talk with Major Grim?"
+
+It was a half-hour's walk to Grim's place, but I had the good
+fortune to catch him in again.  He was sitting in the same chair,
+studying the same book, and this time I saw the title of it--
+Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean--a strange book for a soldier
+to be reading, and cutting its pages with an inlaid dagger, in a
+Jerusalem semi-military boarding-house.  But he was a man of
+unexpectedly assorted moods.
+
+He laughed when I told of ben Nasir.  He looked serious when I
+mooted El-Kerak--serious, then interested, them speculative.
+From where I sat I could watch the changes in his eyes.
+
+"What would the escort amount to?" I asked him.
+
+"Absolute security."
+
+"And what's this bunk about Americans being welcome anywhere?"
+
+"Perfectly true.  All the way from Aleppo down to Beersheba.  Men
+like Dr. Bliss* have made such an impression that an occasional
+rotter might easily take advantage of it.  Americans in this
+country--so far--stand for altruism without ulterior motive.
+If we'd accepted the mandate they might have found us out!
+Meanwhile, an American is safe."  [*President of the American
+College at Beirut.  Died 1920, probably more respected throughout
+the Near East than any ten men of any other nationality.]
+
+"Then I think I'll go to El-Kerak."
+
+Again his eyes grew speculative.  I could not tell whether he was
+considering me or some problem of his own.
+
+"Speaking unofficially," he said, "there are two possibilities.
+You might go without permission--easy enough, provided you don't
+talk beforehand.  In that case, you'd get there and back;  after
+which, the Administration would label and index you.  The
+remainder of your stay in Palestine would be about as exciting
+as pushing a perambulator in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.  You'd
+be canned."
+
+"I'd rather be killed.  What's the alternative?"
+
+"Get permission.  I shall be at El-Kerak myself within the next
+few days.  I think it can be arranged."
+
+"D'you mean I can go with you?" I asked, as eager as a schoolboy
+for the circus.
+
+"Not on your life!  I don't go as an American."
+
+Recalling the first time I had seen him, I sat still and tried to
+look like a person who was not thrilled in the least by seeing
+secrets from the inside.
+
+"Well," I said, "I'm in your hands."
+
+I think he rather liked that.  As I came to know him more
+intimately later on he revealed an iron delight in being trusted.
+But he did not say another word for several minutes, as if there
+were maps in his mind that he was conning before reaching a
+decision.  Then he spoke suddenly.
+
+"Are you busy?" he asked.  "Then come with me."
+
+He phoned to some place or other for a staff automobile, and the
+man was there with it within three minutes.  We piled in and
+drove at totally unholy speed down narrow streets between walls,
+around blind right-angle turns where Arab policemen stood waving
+unintelligible signals, and up the Mount of Olives, past the
+British military grave-yard, to the place they call OETA.*  The
+Kaiser had it built to command every view of the countryside and
+be seen from everywhere, as a monument to his own greatness--the
+biggest, lordliest, most expensive hospice that his architects
+could fashion, with pictures in mosaic on the walls and ceilings
+of the Kaiser and his ancestors in league with the Almighty.  But
+the British had adopted it as Administration Headquarters.
+[*Headquarters:  Occupied Enemy Territory Administration.]
+
+All the way up, behind and in front and on either hand, there
+were views that millions* would give years of their lives to see;
+and they would get good value for their bargain.  Behind us, the
+sky-line was a panorama of the Holy City, domes, minarets and
+curved stone roofs rising irregularly above gray battlemented
+walls.  Down on the right was the ghastly valley of Jehoshaphat,
+treeless, dry, and crowded with white tombs--"dry bones in the
+valley of death."  To the left were everlasting limestone hills,
+one of them topped by the ruined reputed tomb of Samuel--all
+trenched, cross-trenched and war-scarred, but covered now in a
+Joseph's coat of flowers, blue, blood-red, yellow and white. [*
+This is no exaggeration.  There are actually millions, and on
+more than one continent, whose dearest wish, could they have it,
+would be to see Jerusalem before they die.]
+
+There were lines of camels sauntering majestically along three
+hill-tops, making time, and the speed of the car we rode in, seem
+utterly unreal.  And as we topped the hill the Dead Sea lay below
+us, like a polished turquoise set in the yellow gold of the
+barren Moab Mountains.  That view made you gasp.  Even Grim, who
+was used to it, could not turn his eyes away.
+
+We whirled past saluting Sikhs at the pompous Kaiserish entrance
+gate, and got out on to front steps that brought to mind one of
+those glittering hotels at German cure-resorts--bad art, bad
+taste, bad amusements and a big bill.
+
+But inside, in the echoing stone corridors that opened through
+Gothic windows on a courtyard, in which statues of German super-
+people stared with blind eyes, there was nothing now but bald
+military neatness and economy.  Hurrying up an uncarpeted stone
+stairway (Grim seemed to be a speed-demon once his mind was set)
+we followed a corridor around two sides of the square, past
+dozens of closed doors bearing department names, to the
+Administrator's quarters at the far end.  There, on a bare bench
+in a barren ante-room, Grim left me to cool my heels.  He
+knocked, and entered a door marked "private."
+
+It was fully half an hour before the door opened again and I was
+beckoned in.  Grim was alone in the room with the Administrator,
+a rather small, lean, rigidly set up man, with merry fire in his
+eye, and an instantly obvious gift for being obeyed.  He sat at
+an enormous desk, but would have looked more at ease in a tent,
+or on horseback.  The three long rows of campaign ribbons looked
+incongruous beside the bunch of flowers that somebody had crammed
+into a Damascus vase on the desk, with the estimable military
+notion of making the utmost use of space.
+
+Sir Louis was certainly in an excellent temper.  He offered me a
+chair, and looked at me with a sort of practical good-humour that
+seemed to say, "Well, here he is;  now how shall we handle him?"
+I was minded to ask outright for what I wanted, but something in
+his attitude revealed that he knew all that already and would
+prefer to come at the problem in his own way.  It was clear,
+without a word being said, that he proposed to make some sort of
+use of me without being so indiscreet as to admit it.  He
+reminded me rather of Julius Caesar, who was also a little man,
+considering the probable qualifications of some minor spoke in a
+prodigious wheel of plans.
+
+"I understand you want to go to El-Kerak?" he said, smiling as if
+all life were an amusing game.
+
+I admitted the impeachment.  Grim was standing, some little way
+behind me and to one side;  I did not turn my head to look at
+him, for that might have given a false impression that he and I
+were in league together, but I was somehow aware that with folded
+arms he was studying me minutely.
+
+"Well," said Sir Louis, "there's no objection;  only a
+stipulation:  We wouldn't let an Englishman go, because of the
+risk--not to him, but to us.  Any fool has a right to get killed,
+but not to obligate his government.  All the missionaries were
+called in from those outlying districts long ago.  We don't want
+to be held liable for damages for failure to protect.  Such
+things have happened.  You see, the idea is, we assume no
+responsibility for what takes place beyond the Jordan and the
+Dead Sea.  Now, if you'd like to sign a letter waiving any claim
+against us for protection, that would remove any obstacle to your
+going.  But, if you think that unreasonable, the alternative is
+safe.  You can, stay in Jerusalem.  Quite simple."
+
+That had the merit of frankness.  It sounded fair enough.
+Nevertheless, he was certainly not being perfectly frank.  The
+merriment in his eyes meant something more than mere amusement.
+It occurred to me that his frankness took the extreme form of not
+concealing that he had something important in reserve.  I rather
+liked him for it.  His attitude seemed to be that if I wanted to
+take a chance, I might on my own responsibility, but that if my
+doing so should happen to suit his plans, that was his affair.
+Grim was still watching me the way a cat watches a mouse.
+
+"I'll sign such a letter," said I.
+
+"Good.  Here are pen and paper.  Let's have it all in your
+handwriting.  I'll call a clerk to witness the signature."
+
+I wrote down the simple statement that I wished to go to El-Kerak
+for personal reasons, and that I waived all claim against the
+British Administration for personal protection, whether there or
+en route.  A clerk, who looked as if he could not have been hired
+to know, or understand, or remember anything without permission,
+came in answer to the bell.  I signed.  He witnessed.
+
+Sir Louis put the letter in a drawer, and the clerk went
+out again.
+
+"How soon will you go?"
+
+I told about the promised escort, and that a day or two would be
+needed to get word to ben Nasir.  I forgot that ben Nasir would
+not start before moonrise.  It appeared that Sir Louis knew more
+than he cared to admit.
+
+"Can't we get word to ben Nasir for him, Grim?"
+
+Grim nodded.  So did Sir Louis:
+
+"Good.  There'll be no need, then, for you to take any one into
+confidence," he said, turning to me again.  "As a rule it isn't
+well to talk about these things, because people get wrong ideas.
+There are others in Jerusalem who would like permission to go
+to El-Kerak."
+
+"I'll tell nobody."
+
+He nodded again.  He was still considering things in the back
+of his mind, while those intelligent, bright eyes smiled so
+disarmingly.
+
+"How do you propose to reach the Dead Sea?" he asked.  "Ben
+Nasir's escort will probably meet you on the shore on this side."
+
+"Oh, hire some sort of conveyance, I suppose."
+
+"Couldn't we lend him one of our cars, Grim?"
+
+Grim nodded again.
+
+"We'll do that.  Grim, can you get word to ben Nasir so that when
+the escort is ready he may send a messenger straight to the hotel
+with the information?  D'you get my meaning?"
+
+"Sure," said Grim, "nobody else need know then."
+
+"Very well," said Sir Louis.  He rose from his chair to intimate
+that the precise moment had arrived when I might leave without
+indiscretion.  It was not until I was outside the door that I
+realized that my permission was simply verbal, and that the only
+document that had changed hands had been signed by me.  Grim
+followed me into the ante-room after a minute.
+
+"Hadn't I better go back and ask for something in writing from
+him?" I suggested.
+
+"You wouldn't get it.  Anyhow, you're dealing with a gentleman.
+You needn't worry.  I was afraid once or twice you might be going
+to ask him questions.  He'd have canned you if you had.  Why
+didn't you?"
+
+I was not going to help Grim dissect my mental processes.
+
+"There's a delightful air of mystery," I said, "I'd hate to
+spoil it!"
+
+"Come up on the tower," he said. "There's just time before
+sunset.  If you've good eyes, I'll show you El-Kerak."
+
+It is an enormous tower.  The wireless apparatus connected with
+it can talk with Paris and Calcutta.  From the top you feel as if
+you were seeing "all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of
+time."  There are no other buildings to cut off the view or
+tamper with perspective.  The Dead Sea was growing dark.  The
+Moab Hills beyond it looked lonely and savage in silhouette.
+
+"Down there on your left is Jericho," said Grim.  "That winding
+creek beyond it is the Jordan.  As far eastward as that there's
+some peace.  Beyond that, there is hardly a rock that isn't used
+for ambush regularly.  Let your eye travel along the top of the
+hills--nearly as far as the end of the Dead Sea.  Now--d'you see
+where a touch of sunlight glints on something?  That's the top of
+the castle-wall of El-Kerak.  Judge what strategists those old
+crusaders were.  That site commands the ancient high road from
+Egypt.  They could sit up there and take toll to their hearts'
+content.  The Turks quartered troops in the castle and did the
+same thing.  But the Turks overdid it, like everything else.
+They ruined the trade.  No road there nowadays that amounts
+to anything."
+
+"It looks about ten miles away."
+
+"More than eighty."
+
+The sun went down behind us while we watched, and here and there
+the little scattered lights came out among the silent hills in
+proof that there were humans who thought of them in terms of
+home.
+
+Venus and Mars shone forth, yellow and red jewels;  then the
+moon, rising like a stage effect, too big, too strongly lighted
+to seem real, peering inch by inch above the hills and ushering
+in silence.  We could hear one muezzin in Jerusalem wailing that
+God is God.
+
+"That over yonder is savage country," Grim remarked.  "I think
+maybe you'll like it. Time to go now."
+
+He said nothing more until we were scooting downhill in the car
+in the midst of a cloud of dust.
+
+"You won't see me again," he said then, "until you get to El-
+Kerak.  There are just one or two points to bear in mind.  D'you
+care if I lecture?"
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+"When the messenger comes from ben Nasir, go to the Governorate,
+just outside the Damascus Gate, phone OETA, say who you are, and
+ask for the car.  Travel light.  The less you take with you, the
+less temptation there'll be to steal and that much less danger
+for your escort.  I always take nothing,  and get shaved by a
+murderer at the nearest village.  If you wash too much, or change
+your shirt too often, they suspect you of putting on airs.  Can't
+travel too light.  Use the car as far as Jericho, or thereabouts,
+and send it back when the messenger says he's through with it.
+After that, do whatever the leader of the escort tells you, and
+you'll be all right."
+
+"How do I cross the Dead Sea?"
+
+"That's ben Nasir's business.  There's another point I'll ask you
+to bear in mind.  When you see me at El-Kerak, be sure not to
+make the slightest sign of recognition, unless and until you
+get word from me.  Act as if you'd never seen me in your
+life before."
+
+I felt like an arch-conspirator, and there is no other sensation
+half so thrilling.  The flattery of being let in, as it were,
+through a secret door was like strong wine.
+
+"Is your memory good?" Grim asked me.  "If you make notes, be
+sure you let everybody see them;  you'll find more than one of
+them can read English.  If you should see or overhear anything
+that you'd particularly like to remember because it might prove
+useful to me, note it down by making faint dots under the letters
+of words you've already written;  or--better yet--take along a
+pocket Bible;  they're all religious and respect the Bible.  Make
+faint pencil lines underneath words or letters, and they'll think
+you're more than extra devout.  There's nothing special to watch
+out for;  just keep your ears and eyes open.  Well, here's your
+hotel.  See you again soon.  So long."
+
+I got out of the car and went to get ready for a Christian dinner
+served by Moslems, feeling like a person out of the Arabian
+Nights, who had just met the owner of a magic carpet on which one
+only had to sit in order to be wafted by invisible forces into
+unimaginable realms of mystery.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Three
+
+"Do whatever the leader of the escort tells you."
+
+
+I never learned exactly how Jim Grim got word to ben Nasir.  My
+suspicion is that he took the simple course of getting the
+American Colony to send one of their men;  but as they never
+referred to it afterwards, and might have their own reasons for
+keeping silence, I took care not to ask them.  We have most of us
+seen harm done by noisy gratitude for kindness, better covered up.
+
+I kept close to the hotel for three days, studying Arabic.  By
+the fourth afternoon discouragement set in.  I began to believe
+that the whole affair had petered out;  perhaps on reflection the
+Administrator had decided I was not a proper person to be turned
+loose out of bounds, and nobody could have blamed him for that,
+for he knew next to nothing about me.  Or Grim might have been
+called off for some other important business.  The chances seemed
+all against my going after all.
+
+But on the fourth evening, just at sunset, when the sandwiches I
+had ordered in advance were all thoroughly stale and I had almost
+decided to unpack the small hand-grip and try to forget the whole
+affair, I noticed an Arab standing in the door of the hotel
+scrutinizing every one who passed him.  I watched him for five
+minutes.  He paid no attention to officers in uniform.  I left my
+chair in the lobby and walked past him twice.
+
+He had one eye, like a gimlet on a universal joint;  he turned
+it this and that way without any corresponding movement of his
+head.  It penetrated.  You felt he could have seen you with it
+in the dark.
+
+I started to pass him a third time.  He held his hand out and
+thrust a small, soiled piece of paper into mine.  The writing on
+it was in Arabic, so I went back to the seat in the far corner,
+to puzzle it out, he standing meanwhile in the doorway and
+continuing to quiz people as if I had meant nothing in his life.
+The message was short enough:
+
+
+Bearer will accompany you to a place where the escort will
+be in readiness.  God give your honour a good journey.  Mustapha
+Ben Nasir.
+
+
+I went to the Governorate and phoned for the car to come and pick
+me up outside the Jaffa Gate.  The Arab followed me, and he and I
+were both searched at the gate for weapons, by a Sikh who knew
+nothing and cared less about Near East politics.  His orders were
+to search thoroughly.  He did it.  The man whose turn was next
+ahead of mine was a Russian priest, whose long black cloak did
+not save him from painstaking suspicion.  He was still
+indignantly refusing to take down his pants and prove that the
+hard lump on his thigh was really an amulet against sciatica,
+when the car came for me.
+
+It was an ordinary Ford car, and the driver was not in uniform.
+He, too, had only one eye in full commission, for the other was
+bruised and father swollen.  I got in beside him and let the Arab
+have the rear seat to himself, reflecting that I would be able to
+smell all the Arab sweat I cared to in the days to come.
+
+We are governed much more by our noses than we are often aware
+of, and I believe that many people--in the East especially--use
+scent because intuition warns them that their true smell would
+arouse unconscious antagonism.  Dogs, as well as most wild
+animals, fight at the suggestion of a smell.  Humans only differ
+from the animals, much, when they are being self-consciously
+human.  Then they forget what they really know and tumble
+headlong into trouble.
+
+The driver seemed to know which road to take, and to be in no
+particular hurry, perhaps on account of his injured eye.  He was
+an ex-soldier, of course:  one of those under-sized Cockneys with
+the Whitechapel pallor overlying a pugnacious instinct, who make
+such astonishing fighting-men in the intervals between sulking
+and a sort of half-affectionate abuse of everything in sight.
+Being impatient to begin the adventure, I suggested more speed.
+
+"Oh!" he answered.  "So you're another o' these people in an
+'urry to get to Jericho!  It's strynge.  The last one was a
+Harab.  Tyke it from me, gov'nor, I've driven the very last
+Harab as gets more than twenty-five miles an hour out o' me,
+so 'elp me--"
+
+He tooled the car out on to the road toward Bethany, and down the
+steep hill that passes under the Garden of Gethsemane, before
+vouchsafing another word.  Then, as we started to climb the hill
+ahead, he jerked his chin in the direction of the sharp turn we
+had just passed in the bottom of the valley.  "Took that corner
+las' time on one wheel!"
+
+"For the Arab?"
+
+"Aye.  Taught me a lesson.  Never agayn!  I ain't no Arabian
+Night.  Nor yet no self-immolatin' 'Indoo invitin' no juggernauts
+to make no pancykes out o' me.  'Enceforth, I drives reasonable.
+All Harabs may go to 'ell for all o' me."
+
+He was itching to tell his story.  He was likely to tell it
+quicker for not being questioned;  your Cockney dislikes anything
+he can construe into inquisition.  I remarked that the road
+didn't seem made for speed--too narrow and too rough--and let it
+go at that.
+
+He said no more until we reached the village of Bethany, and drew
+abreast of Lazarus' reputed tomb, where a pack of scavenger-dogs
+awoke and yelped around the wheels.  He did his best to run
+over one of them, but missed.  Then he could not hold his story
+any longer.
+
+"Two nights ago," he said, "they gives me orders to take a Harab
+to a point near Jericho.  After dark, I starts off, 'im on the
+back seat;  engine ain't warm yet, so we goes slow.  He leans
+forward after a couple o' minutes, an says 'Yalla kawam'!" *  So
+I thinks to myself I'll show the blighter a thing or two, me not
+bein' used to takin' orders from no Harabs.  Soon as the engine's
+'ot I lets rip, an' you know now what the road's like.  When we
+gets to the top o' that 'ill above Gethsemane I lets extry
+special rip.  Thinks I, if you can stand what I can, my son,
+you've guts. [*Hurry up.]
+
+"Well, we 'its all the 'igh places, and lands on a bit o' level
+road just often enough to pick up more speed--comes round that
+sharp bend on 'alf a wheel, syme as I told you--kills three pye-
+dogs for sure, an' maybe others, but I don't dare look round--
+misses a camel in the dark that close that the 'air on my arms
+an' legs fair crawled up an' down me--'it's a lump o' rock that
+comes near tippin' us into the ditch--an' carries on faster an'
+ever.  By the time we gets 'ere to Bethany, thinks I, it's time
+to take a look an' see if my passenger's still in the bloomin'
+car.  So I slows down.
+
+"The minute I turns my 'ead to 'ave a peer at 'im.  'Kawam!' 'e
+says. 'Quick!  Quick!'
+
+"So it strikes me I weren't in no such 'urry after all.  Why
+'urry for a Harab?  The car's been rattlin' worse 'n a tinker's
+basket.  I gets down to lave a look--lights a gasper*--an' takes
+my bloomin' time about it.  You seen them yellow curs there by
+Lazarus' tomb?  Well, they come for me, yappin' an' snarlin' to
+beat 'ell.  I'm pickin' up stones to break their 'eads with--good
+stones ain't such easy findin' in the dark, an' every time I
+stoops 'alf a dozen curs makes a rush for me--when what d'you
+suppose?  That bloomin' Harab passenger o' mine vaults over into
+my seat, an' afore I could say ''ell's bells' 'e's off.  I'd left
+the engine runnin'.  By the luck o' the Lord I 'angs on, an'
+scrambles in--back seat. [*Anglice--canteen cigarette.]
+
+"I thought at first I'd reach over an' get a half-nelson on 'im
+from behind.  But, strike me blind!  I didn't dare!
+
+"Look where we are now.  Can you see the 'air-pin turn at the
+bottom of this 'ill, with a ditch, beyond it?  Well, we takes
+that turn in pitch-dark shadow with all four wheels in the air,
+an' you'd 'a thought we was a blinkin' airplane a doin' stunts.
+But 'e's a hexpert, 'e is, an' we 'olds the road.  From there on
+we goes in one 'oly murderin' streak to a point about 'alf-way up
+the 'ill where the Inn of the Good Samaritan stands on top.
+There we 'as two blow-outs simultaneous, an' thinks I, now, my
+son, I've got you!  I gets out.
+
+"'You can drive,' I says, 'like Jehu son o' Nimshi what made
+Israel to sin.  Let's see you make bricks now without no bleedin'
+straw'!  I knew there weren't no tools under the seat--there
+never are in this 'ere country if you've left your car out o'
+your sight for five minutes.  'You take off them two back tires,'
+I says, 'while I sit 'ere an meditate on the ways of Harabs!
+Maybe you're Moses,' I says, 'an know 'ow to work a miracle.'
+
+"But the only miracle about that bloke's 'is nerve.  'E gets out,
+'an begins to walk straight on up'ill without as much as a by-
+your-leave.  I shouts to 'im to come back.  But 'e walks on.  So
+I picks up a stone off the pile I was sittin' on, an' I plugs 'im
+good--'its 'im fair between the shoulder-blades.  You'd think, if
+'e was a Harab, that'ud bring 'im to 'is senses, wouldn't you?
+But what d'you suppose the blighter did?
+
+"Did you notice my left eye when you got in the car?  'E turns
+back, an' thinks I, 'e's goin' to knife me.  But that sport could
+use 'is fists, an' believe me, 'e done it!  I can use 'em a bit
+myself, an' I starts in to knock 'is block off, but 'e puts it
+all over me--weight, reach an' science.  Mind you, science!
+First Arab ever I see what 'ad science;  an' I don't more than
+'alf believe it now!
+
+"Got to 'and it to 'im.  'E was merciful.  'E let up on me the
+minute 'e see I'd 'ad enough.  'E starts off up'ill again.  I
+sits where 'e'd knocked me on to a stone pile, wishin' like 'ell
+for a drink.  It was full moonlight, an' you could see for miles.
+After about fifteen minutes, me still meditatin' murder an'
+considerin' my thirst I seen 'em fetch a camel out o' the khan at
+the Inn o' the Good Samaritan;  an' next thing you know, 'e's out
+o' sight.  Thinks I, that's the last of 'im, an' good riddance!
+But not a bit of it!
+
+"The men what fetched the camel for 'im comes down to me an' says
+the sheikh 'as left word I'm to be fed an' looked after.  They
+fixes me up at the inn with a cot an' blankets an' a supper o'
+sorts, an' I lies awake listenin' to 'em talkin' Arabic,
+understandin' maybe one word out of six or seven.  From what I
+can make o' their conjecturin', they think 'e ain't no sheikh at
+all, but a bloomin' British officer in disguise!
+
+"Soon as morning comes I jump a passing commissariat lorry.  As
+soon as I gets to Jerusalem I reports that sheikh for arson,
+theft, felo de se, busting a gov'ment car, usin' 'is fists when
+by right 'e should ha' knifed me, an' every other crime I could
+think of.  An' all I gets is laughed at!  What d'you make of it?
+Think 'e was a Harab?"
+
+I wondered whether he was Jimgrim, but did not say so.  Grim had
+not appeared to me like a man who would use his fists at all
+readily;  but he was such an unusual individual that it was
+useless trying to outline what he might or might not do.  It was
+also quite likely that the chauffeur had omitted mention of, say,
+nine-tenths of the provocation he gave his passenger.  What
+interested me most was the thought that, if that really was
+Jimgrim, he must have been in a prodigious hurry about something;
+and that most likely meant excitement, if not danger across the
+Dead Sea.
+
+We caught sight of the Dead Sea presently, bowling past the Inn
+of the Good Samaritan and beginning to descend into the valley,
+twelve hundred feet below sea level, that separates Palestine
+from Moab.  The moon shone full on the water, and it looked more
+wan and wild than an illustration out of Dante's Inferno.  There
+was no doubt how the legends sprang up about birds falling dead
+as they flew across it.  It was difficult to believe that
+anything could be there and not die.  It was a vision of the land
+of death made beautiful.
+
+But the one-eyed Arab on the rear seat began to sing.  To him
+that view meant "home, sweet home."  His song was all about his
+village and how he loved it--what a pearl it was--how sweeter
+than all cities.
+
+"'Ark at 'im!" The driver stopped the car to fill his pipe.
+"You'd think 'e lived in 'eaven!  I've fought over every hinch o'
+this perishin' country, an' tyke it from me, guv'nor, there ain't
+a village in it but what's composed of 'ovels wi' thatched roofs,
+an' 'eaps o' dung so you can't walk between 'em!  Any one as
+wants my share o' Palestine can 'ave it!"
+
+We bumped on again down a road so lonely that it would have felt
+good to see a wild beast, or an armed man lurking in wait for us.
+But the British had accomplished the impossible:  They had so
+laid the fear of law along those roads that, though there might
+be murders to the right and left of them, the passer-by who kept
+to the road was safe, for the first time since the Romans now and
+then imposed a temporary peace.
+
+At last, like two yellow streams glistening in moonlight, the
+road forked--one way toward Jericho.  The other way appeared
+to run more or less parallel with the Dead Sea.  At that point
+the one-eyed Arab left off singing at last and clutched the
+driver's shoulder.
+
+"All right!  All right!" he answered impatiently, and stopped.
+"Out you get, then!"
+
+He did not expect the tip I gave him.  He seemed to think it
+placed him under obligation to wait there and talk for a few
+minutes.  But my one-eyed guide waved him away disgustedly with
+the hand that did not hold my bag, and we stood in the road
+watching until he vanished up-hill out of sight.  Then the guide
+plucked my sleeve and I followed him along the righthand road.
+We walked half a mile as fast as he could set foot to the ground.
+
+At last we reached a pretense of a village--a little cluster of
+half-a-dozen thatched stone huts enclosed within one fence of
+thorn and cactus.  Everything showed up as clearly in the
+moonlight as if painted with phosphorus.  The heavy shadows only
+made the high lights seem more luminous.  A man and two donkeys
+were waiting for us outside the thorn hedge.  The man made no
+remark.  My guide and I mounted and rode on.
+
+Presently we turned down a track toward the Dead Sea, riding
+among huge shadows cast by the hills on our right hand.  The
+little jackals they call foxes crossed our path at intervals.
+Owls the size of a robin, only vastly fluffier, screamed from the
+rocks as we passed them.  Otherwise, it was like a soul's last
+journey, eerie, lonely and awful, down toward River Styx.
+
+Long before we caught sight of the water again, through a ragged
+gap between high limestone rocks, I could smell a village.  The
+guide approached it cautiously, stopping every minute or so to
+listen.  When we came on it at last it was down below us in
+abysmal darkness, one light shining through a window two feet
+square in proof we were not hesitating on the verge of the
+infinite pit.
+
+The donkeys knew the way.  They trod daintily, like little
+ladies, along a circling track that goats made and men had
+certainly done nothing to improve.  We made an almost complete
+ellipse around and down, and rode at last over dry dung at the
+bottom, into which the donkeys' feet sank as into a three-pile
+carpet.  You could see the stars overhead, but nothing, where we
+were, except that window and a shaft of yellow light with
+hundreds of moths dazzled in it.
+
+We must have made some noise in spite of the donkeys' vetvet
+foot-fall.  As we crossed the shaft of light a door opened within
+six feet of the window.  A man in Arab deshabille with a red
+tarboosh awry, thrust out his head and drew it in again quickly.
+
+"Is that the American?" he asked.  He held the door so that he
+could slam it in our faces if required.
+
+The guide made no answer.  I gave my name.  The man opened the
+door wider.
+
+"Lailtak sa'idi, effendi!  Hishkur Allah!  Come in, mister!"  The
+guide led the donkeys away to some invisible place.  I crossed
+the threshold, my host holding his tin lantern carefully to show
+the two steps leading down to a flag-stone floor.  He bolted the
+door the moment I was inside.  He seemed in a great state of
+excitement, and afraid to make any noise.  Even when he shot the
+bolt he did it silently.
+
+It was a square room, moderately clean, furnished only with a
+table and two chairs.  There were other rooms leading off it, but
+the stone partitions did not reach as high as the thatch and I
+could hear rustling, and some one snoring.  I sat on one of the
+chairs at his invitation, and rather hoped for supper, having had
+none.  But supper was not in his mind;  it seemed he had too much
+else to worry him.  He looked like a man who worried easily, and
+likely enough with good reason, for his long nose and narrow eyes
+did not suggest honesty.
+
+"There was to be an escort to meet me here," I said.
+
+"Yes, yes.  Thank God, mister, you have come at last.  If you had
+only come at sunset!  Ali has gone to bring them now."
+
+"Who is Ali?"
+
+"He with one eye.  He who brought you.  Your escort came at
+sunset.  Because I am Christian they would not listen to me or
+wait for you in my house.  There are twenty of them, led by
+Anazeh, who is a bad rascal.  They have gone to raid the
+villages.  There has been trouble.  I have heard two shots fired.
+Now they will come back to my house, and if the Sikh patrol is
+after them they will be caught here, and I shall be accused of
+helping them.  May the fires of their lying Prophet's Eblis
+burn Anazeh and his men forever and ever, Amen!  May God curse
+their religion!"
+
+That was a nice state of affairs.  I did not want to be caught
+there by a lot of truculent Sikhs under one of those jocularly
+incredulous young British subalterns that Sikhs adore.  In the
+first place, I had nothing whatever in writing to prove my
+innocence.  The least that was likely to happen would be an
+ignominious return to Jerusalem, after a night in a guard-house,
+should there be a guard-house;  failing that, a night in the open
+within easy reach of Sikh's bayonets.  In Jerusalem, no doubt,
+Sir Louis would order me released immediately.  But it began to
+look as if the whole mystery after all was nothing but a well-
+staged decoy, using me for bait.  Not even tadpoles enjoy being
+used for live-bait without being consulted first.  I began to
+spear about for remedies.
+
+"If you're an honest man," I said, "you'd better simply deny all
+connection with the raid."
+
+"Hah?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.  He did not look like an honest man.
+He wasn't one.  He knew it.  He retorted gloomily:
+
+"Anazeh's scoundrels will have raided sheep, and perhaps cattle.
+If any one has resisted them, there will be wailing widows crying
+out for vengeance.  They will put the sheep and cattle in their
+boats in which they came over the sea this afternoon.  The boats
+will be found by the Sikhs, hauled up on the sand-pit just below
+my house, with my motor-boat beside them.  I am ruined!"
+
+Well, my own predicament was better than that.  Nobody was likely
+to accuse me of having stolen sheep.  But I could not feel sorry
+for my host, because he was so sorry for himself.  He was one of
+those unfortunates who carry the conviction of their own guilt in
+their faces.  I gave up all idea of relying on him in case the
+Sikhs should come.
+
+My next idea was to ask for the loan of one of the donkeys, and
+to start back toward Jerusalem.  But I had not more than thought
+of it when men's footsteps pattered on the yard dung, and an
+indubitable rifle-butt beat on the wooden door.
+
+"For God's sake!" hissed the owner of the place.  He ran to the
+door to open it as the thumping grew louder.  As he drew the bolt
+somebody kicked the door open, sending him reeling backwards.
+For a second I thought the Sikhs had come.
+
+But he was nothing like a Sikh who strode in, with a dozen
+ruffians at his tail and one-eyed Ali bringing up the rear.  He
+was one of the finest-looking Arabs I had ever seen, although
+considerably past fifty and wrinkled so that his face was a net-
+work of fine lines, out of which his big, dark eyes shone with
+unaged intelligence.  He was magnificently dressed, perhaps in
+order to do me honour.  Except for the fact that he carried a
+modern military rifle on his elbow, in place of a shepherd's
+crook or a spear, he looked like one of those historic worthies
+who stalk through the pages of the Pentateuch.  The dignity and
+charm with which he bowed to me were inimitable--unconveyable.
+But he turned on my Christian host like a prophet of old
+rebuking blasphemy.
+
+Arabic when the right man uses it sounds like tooth-for-a-tooth
+law being laid down.  Hebrew is all music and soft vowels;
+Arabic all guttural consonants.  The Sheikh Anazeh (there was no
+doubt of his identity;  they all kept calling him by name)
+fulminated.  The other bleated at him.  I learned his name at
+last.  Ali of the one eye pressed forward, took him by the
+sleeve, and called him Ahmed.  Ali seemed to be adding persuasion
+to Anazeh's threats.  Whatever it was they were driving at, Ahmed
+began to look like yielding.  So, as I could not untangle more
+than one brief sentence at a time from all those galloping
+arguments, I pulled Ahmed away into a corner.
+
+"What do they all want?" I asked him.  "Tell me in ten words."
+But he was not a brief man.
+
+"They say the Sikhs are after them.  They have put the stolen
+sheep into their boats, as I told you they would, mister.  Now
+they order me to tow them with my motor-boat.  But it cannot be
+done, mister, it cannot be done!  I tell them there is government
+launch near Jericho that the Sikh patrol can use to overtake us.
+I have a swift boat, but if I take in tow two other loaded boats
+we shall be caught;  and then who will save everything I have
+from confiscation?"
+
+"How close are the Sikhs?" I asked.
+
+"God knows, mister!  They can come fast.  Unless I consent to let
+them use my boat, Anazeh will order his men to kill me, and then
+they will take the boat in any case!  There is only one thing:
+they must leave the sheep behind and all crowd into my boat, but
+I cannot persuade them!"
+
+At that moment another of Anazeh's party burst in through the
+door.  He evidently bore bad news.  Catching sight of me, he
+lowered his voice to a whisper, and, whatever he said, Anazeh
+nodded gravely.  Then the old sheikh gave an order, and four of
+his men came without further ado to seize Ahmed.
+
+"Bear me witness!" the wretched man called back to me as they
+dragged him off.  "I go under protest--most unwillingly!"
+
+Somebody struck him with a butt-end.  A woman's head appeared
+over the top of the partition, and began to jabber noisily.
+Several of Anazeh's men hurled jests:  the highest compliment
+they paid her was to call her Um-Kulsum, the mother of sin.
+Anazeh beckoned to me.  He did not seem to doubt for an instant
+that I would follow him.
+
+I was in no mind to wait there and be arrested by the Sikh
+patrol.  I wondered whether they were coming in open order,
+combing the countryside, or heading all together straight for a
+known objective;  and whether in either case I could give them
+the slip and head back toward Jerusalem.  In that minute I
+recalled Grim's advice:
+
+"Do whatever the leader of the escort tells you and you'll be all
+right.  You needn't be afraid to trust him."
+
+That settled it.  I did not suppose for a minute that Grim had
+contemplated any such contingency as this;  but he had
+volunteered the advice, so the consequences would be his affair.
+I followed Anazeh into outer darkness, and one of his men pulled
+the door to after me.
+
+There was something very like a panic down by the waterside,
+three hundred yards away from the house.  It needed all Anazeh's
+authority to straighten matters out.  There were divided
+counsels;  and the raiders were working at a disadvantage in
+total darkness;  the shadow of the hills fell just beyond the
+stern of the boats as they lay with their bows ashore.
+
+They had already forced Ahmed into his own motor-boat, where he
+was struggling vainly to crank a cold engine.  Some of the others
+were trying to push off a boat full of bleating sheep.  One man
+was carrying a fat sheep in his arms toward the motor-boat,
+splashing knee-deep in the water and shouting advice to everybody
+else, and in the end that was the only piece of plunder they got
+away with.  Suddenly one man, who had been left behind to keep a
+look-out, came leaping like a ghost among the shadows, shouting
+the one word "askeri!" (Soldiers!)  He jumped straight into the
+motor-boat.  Anazeh bullied all the rest in after him.  I climbed
+in over the bow.  By that time you could not have crowded in one
+more passenger with the aid of a battering ram.
+
+"Yalla!" barked Anazeh.  But the engine would not start.  Blood-
+curdling threats were hurled at the unhappy Ahmed.  Some e of the
+men got into the water and began to shove off, as if the engine
+could be encouraged by collaboration.
+
+I was just as keen to escape as any one.  I could not imagine a
+Sikh or subaltern stupid enough to believe me innocent.  It was a
+military government.  Soldiers have a drum-head method of leaving
+nothing to discuss except where the corpse is to be buried.
+
+I forced my way aft--got some gasoline out of the tank into a tin
+cup--thrust aside Ahmed and two other men--and primed the engine
+liberally.  The engine coughed next time they moved the wheel,
+and in thirty seconds more we had it going.  Ahmed came in for a
+volley of mockery for having to be shown the way to start his
+engine;  but from the sour way he looked at me I was nearly sure
+he had stalled deliberately.
+
+We backed away from shore, and Anazeh steered the boat's nose
+eastward.  Then somebody at the reversing lever threw it forward
+too suddenly, and the still chilled engine stopped.  It took
+about another minute to restart it.  We were just beginning to
+gain speed when some one shouted.  All eyes turned toward the
+shore, the overloaded boat rocking dangerously as the crowd bent
+their bodies all in one direction together.
+
+Down near the shore-line an electric torch flashed on the
+uniforms of half-a-dozen Sikhs, and we could hear an unmistakably
+British voice shouting an order.
+
+We were out in the moonlight now, a perfect target.  Bullets
+chanced at us could hardly fail to hit somebody.  Two or three
+well-placed shots might sink us.  But Anazeh had presence of
+mind.  He changed helm, so as to present us end-on to the shore.
+Low in the water though the boat was, we were beginning to make
+good headway.
+
+The Sikhs lost no time.  Shots began to whizz overhead and to
+splash the water around us.  But the boat was painted gray;  as
+we increased the distance we must have looked like a moving patch
+of darker water with a puzzling wake behind us.  The sea was
+still.  The stars were reflected in it in unsteady dots and
+streaks.  The moon cast a silver patch of light that shimmered,
+and confused the eye.  Sikhs are not by any means all marksmen.
+At any rate, the shots all missed.  Though some of our party,
+Anazeh included, returned the fire, none boasted of having hit
+any one.  And an Arab boasts at the least excuse.
+
+In a few minutes we were out of range and, since there was no
+pursuing launch in sight, could afford to jeer at the Sikhs in
+chorus.  There were things said about their habits and their
+ancestry that it is to be hoped they did not hear, or at any rate
+understand, for the sake of any Arab prisoners they might take in
+future.  It always struck me as a fool game to mock your enemy.
+If you fall in his power at any time he would be almost more than
+human if he did not remember it.  It seemed to me unlikely that
+those Sikhs would forget to avenge the Arab compliments that must
+have sizzled in ears across that star-lit sea.  After that the
+only immediate danger was from the wind that sometimes blows down
+in sudden gusts from between the mountain-tops.  It would have
+needed only half a sea to swamp us.  But the Dead Sea was living
+up to its reputation, quiet, inert, like a mercury mirror for the
+stars--a brooding place of silence.
+
+The Arabs' spirits rose as we chugged toward their savage hills.
+They began to sing glorious songs about women and mares and
+camels.  Presently Anazeh improvised an epic about the night's
+raid, abortive though it had been.  He left out all the
+disappointing part.  He sang first of the three shore-dwelling
+fools whose boats they had stolen.  Then of the baffled rage of
+those same fools when they should learn their property was lost
+forever.  Presently, as he warmed to the spirit of the thing, he
+sang about the wails of the frightened villagers from whom they
+had plundered sheep and goats;  and of the skill and
+resourcefulness with which the party had escaped pursuit under
+his leadership, Allah favoring, "and blessed be His Prophet!"
+
+Last, he sang about me, the honoured stranger, for whom they had
+dared everything and conquered, and whom they were taking to El-
+Kerak.  He described me as a prince from a far country, the son
+of a hundred kings.
+
+It was a good song.  I got Ahmed to translate it to me
+afterwards.  But I suspect that Ahmed toned it down in deference
+to what he may have thought might be my modesty and moralistic
+scruples.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Four
+
+"I am willing to use all means--all methods."
+
+
+Ahmed knew the Dead Sea.  He knew its moods and a few of its
+tricks, so he was suitably scared.  He was more of raid of the
+treacherous sea than of his captors.  They weren't treacherous in
+the least.  They were frankly disobedient of any law except their
+own;  respectful of nothing but bullets, brains and their own
+interpretation of the Will of Allah.  They showed sublime
+indifference to danger that always comes of ignorance.  Ahmed was
+for running straight across to cut the voyage short, because of
+the wind that sometimes blows from the south at dawn.  He said it
+might kick up a sea that would roll us over, for the weight of
+the Dead Sea waves in a blow is prodigious.
+
+They overruled his protest with loud-lunged unanimity and lots of
+abuse.  Anazeh continued to steer a diagonal course for a notch
+in the Moab Hills that look, until you get quite close to them,
+as if they rose sheer out of the sea.  The old chief was pretty
+amateurish at the helm, whatever his other attainments.  Our wake
+was like a drunkard's.
+
+What with the danger in that overcrowded boat, and the manifestly
+compromising fact that I had now become one of a gang who boasted
+of the murder they had done that night, I did some speculation
+that seems ridiculous now, at this distance, after a lapse of
+time.  It occurred to me that Grim might be disguised as a member
+of Anazeh's party.  As far as possible in the dark I thoroughly
+scrutinized each individual.  It is easy to laugh about it now,
+but I actually made my way to Anazeh's side and tried to discover
+whether the old Sheikh's wrinkles and gray-shot beard were not a
+very skillfully done make-up.  At any rate, I got from that
+absurd investigation the sure knowledge that Grim was not in the
+boat with us.
+
+I could not talk with Anazeh very well, because when he tried to
+understand my amateurish Arabic and to modify his flow of stately
+speech to meet my needs, he always put his head down, and the
+helm with it.  It seemed wisest to let him do one unaccustomed
+thing at a time.  I did not care to try to talk with any of his
+men, because that might possibly have been a breach of etiquette.
+Arab jealousy is about as quick as fulminate of mercury:  as
+unreasonable, from a western viewpoint, as a love-sick woman's.
+
+But there did not seem any objection to talking with Ahmed.  He
+was at least in theory my co-religionist, and not a person any
+Moslem in that boat was likely to be jealous of.  He jumped
+at the notion of making friends with me.  He made no secret of
+the reason.
+
+"You are safe, effendi.  They will neither rob you, nor kill you,
+nor let you get killed.  You are their guest.  But as for me,
+they would cut my throat as readily as that sheep's, more
+especially since they have discovered that you know how to start
+the engine.  My best chance was to make them believe that the
+engine is difficult to understand.  Because of your knowledge
+they now feel independent of me.  So I must yield to them in
+everything.  And if they force me to swear on a Bible, and on my
+father's honour, and in the name of God, that I will not give
+evidence against them, I shall have to swear."
+
+"An oath given under compulsion--" I began.  But he laughed
+cynically.
+
+"Ah!  You do not know this land--these folk, effendi.  If I were
+to break such an oath as that, they would burn my house, steal my
+cattle, ravish my wife, and hunt me to the death.  If I ran away
+to America, Arabs in Chicago and New York would continue the
+hunt.  This is a land where an oath is binding, unless you are
+the stronger.  I am weak--an unimportant person."
+
+"What is your business?" I asked.
+
+"There is no business for a man like me.  The regulations forbid
+commerce in the only goods for which there is a real demand
+among Bedouins."
+
+"So you're a smuggler, eh?"
+
+He laughed, between pride and caution, and changed the subject.
+
+"I shall do what they order me, effendi.  I think they will keep
+my boat over there to bring you back again.  But when I get back
+the Sikhs will arrest me.  So I ask you to bear me witness that I
+was compelled by threats and force to go with these people.  In
+that way, with a little ingenuity--that is to say, the ingenious
+use of piastras--perhaps I can contrive to get out of the
+difficulty without being punished by both Arabs and British."
+
+I promised to tell no more than I had seen and heard.  On the
+strength of that we became as fast friends as suspicion
+permitted.  We trusted each other, because we more or less had
+to, like a couple of thieves "on the lam."  It suited me.  He was
+a very good interpreter and slavishly anxious to please.  But I
+lived to regret it later.  When my evidence had cleared him of
+collusion in the raid, he chose on the strength of that to claim
+me as his friend for life.  He turned up in the United States and
+tried to live on his wits.  I had to pay a lawyer to defend him
+in Federal Court.  He writes me piously pathetic letters from
+Leavenworth Penitentiary.  And when he gets out I suppose I
+shall have to befriend him again.  However, at the moment, he
+was useful.
+
+It was just dawn when old Anazeh ran the launch into a cove
+between high rocks.  Ahmed let out a shriek of anguish at the
+violence done the hull.  They pitched the sheep overboard to
+wade ashore without remembering to untie its legs;  it was
+almost drowned before it occurred to any one to rescue it.
+Perhaps it was dead.  I don't know.  Anyhow, one fellow prayed
+in a hurry while his companion cut the sheep's throat to make
+it lawful meat.
+
+"God is good," old Anazeh remarked to me, "and blessed be His
+Prophet, who forbade us faithful, even though we hunger, to
+defile ourselves with the flesh of creatures whose blood did not
+flow from the knife of the slayer."
+
+After that they all prayed, going first into the oily-feeling,
+asphaltic water for the ceremonial washing.  They were quite
+particular about it.  Then they spread prayer-mats, facing Mecca.
+Every single cut-throat had brought along his prayer-mat, and had
+treasured it as carefully as his rifle.
+
+Ahmed and I sat on a rock and watched them.  Ahmed pretended he
+wanted to pray, too.  To impress me, he said he was a very devout
+Christian and that nothing should prevent the practice of his
+religion.  But he was very quick to take my advice not to start
+anything that might bring on a breach of the peace.  Old Anazeh's
+short preliminary sermon to his followers, about the need of
+always keeping God in mind, was not addressed to us.
+
+Prayers finished, they proceeded to cut up and cook the sheep.
+Ahmed and I subdued the voice of conscience without noticeable
+effort and ate our share of the stolen goods.  Ahmed said that,
+seeing how little was left for him when the rest had all been
+served, he sinned only in small degree, but that my share, as an
+honoured guest, was huge, and the sin proportionate.  So I gave
+him some of my meat, and he ate it, and we were equally sinful--
+one more bond cementing an "eternal friendship!"
+
+We had hardly finished eating when an Arab on a gray horse came
+riding furiously down a ravine that looked like a dry water-
+course.  He was brought up all-standing fifty yards away.  Every
+man in the party leveled a rifle at him.  Anazeh beckoned me to
+come and get behind him for protection.  He was very angry when I
+refused.  He cursed the language and religion of whatever fool
+had taught me manners in a land where pigs are lawful food.
+However, after they had all had a good look at the horseman they
+let him draw near, and there followed a noisy conference, the man
+on the horse calling on Allah repeatedly with emphasis, and
+Anazeh and his followers all doing the same thing, but from an
+opposing viewpoint.  I persuaded Ahmed to go up close and listen.
+
+"The man is from El-Kerak," he said presently, while they all
+still fought with words, using tremendous oaths by way of
+artillery.  "A council of the tribes has been summoned, to meet
+at El-Kerak, but each sheikh is only to take two men with him,
+because of the risk of fighting among themselves.  Anazeh says
+there can be no proper council without his being present, and
+that he will attend the council;  but as for taking only two men,
+he has pledged his word to escort you with twenty men to El-
+Kerak.  He swears that he will carry out that pledge, even should
+he have to fight the whole way there and back again!"
+
+Anazeh suddenly cut short the war of words.  His gesture
+suggested that of Joshua who made the sun stand still.  He tossed
+a curt order to one of his men, who went off at a run toward a
+village, whose morning smoke rose blue over a spur of the range a
+mile away.  Then Anazeh sat down to await events, and took no
+more notice of the horseman's arguments.  That did not worry the
+horseman much.  He kept on arguing.  Every few minutes one of
+Anazeh's men would go to him and repeat some tid-bit, as if the
+old sheikh had not heard it;  but all he got for his pains was a
+gesture of contemptuous dismissal.
+
+Ahmed kept growing more and more uncomfortable all the time.  He
+had attended to his boat, making it properly fast and covering
+the engine, under the eyes of four men who were at pains to see
+that he did not crank up and desert.  Now he was back beside me,
+trying to bolster up his own courage by making me afraid.
+
+"They have determined to take me along with them to prevent me
+from escaping," he complained.  "That man on the horse is saying
+that if more men go with Anazeh than you and two others, there
+will certainly be fighting.  And Anazeh answers, he has pledged
+his word.  Can you not say something to persuade Anazeh?"
+
+I would rather have tried to persuade a tiger.  Short of knocking
+the old raider on the head and standing off his twenty ruffians,
+I could not imagine a way of turning him from his set purpose.
+And at that, I had not a weapon of any kind.  I was the goods,
+and the game old sportsman intended to deliver me, right side up,
+perhaps, but all in one piece and to the proper consignee.
+
+
+"I don't see anything to worry about," said I.
+
+"Wait till you hear the bullets!" Ahmed answered.  Nevertheless,
+bullets or no bullets, I did not see what I could do about it.
+Again I remembered Grim's advice:  "Do what the leader of the
+escort tells you."  I had begun to feel sorry for Ahmed in spite
+of his self-pity, but his fear wasn't contagious and his advice
+wasn't worth listening to.
+
+"Effendi, you are Anazeh's guest.  He must do as you demand, if
+you ask in the Name of the Most High.  Tell him, therefore, that
+you have an urgent business in El-Kudz.  Demand that he send you
+back, with me, in my boat!"
+
+"You are not his guest.  He would simply shoot you and destroy
+the boat," I answered.
+
+It was not more than half-an-hour before I saw horses coming in
+our direction from the village.  At sight of them the man on the
+gray horse lost heart.  With a final burst of eloquence, in which
+he spread his breast to heaven and shook both fists in witness
+that he was absolved and no blood-guilt could rest on his head,
+he rode away at top speed straight up the ravine down which he
+originally came.
+
+The horses proved to be a very mixed lot--some good, some very
+bad, and some indifferent.  But again they treated me as honoured
+guest and provided me a mare with four sound legs and nothing
+much the matter except vice.  She came at me with open teeth
+when I tried to mount, but four men held her and I climbed
+aboard, somehow or other.  As a horseman, I am a pretty good
+sack of potatoes.
+
+That was the worst saddle I ever sat in--and Anazeh's second-
+best!  The stirrups swung amidships, so to speak, and whenever
+you tried to rest your weight on them for a moment they described
+an arc toward the rear.  Moreover, you could not sit well back on
+the saddle to balance matters, because of the high cantle.  The
+result, whether you did with stirrups or without them, was
+torture, for anybody but an Arab, who has notions of comfort all
+his own.
+
+They put Ahmed on a wall-eyed scrub that looked unfit to walk,
+but proved well able to gallop under his light weight.  One of
+Anazeh's men took my bag, with a nod to reassure me, and without
+a word we were off full-pelt, Anazeh leading with four stalwarts
+who looked almost as hard-bitten as himself, six men crowding me
+closely, and the remainder bringing up the rear.
+
+That is the Arab way of doing things--rush and riot to begin
+with.  The steepness of the stony ravine we rode up soon reduced
+the horses to a walk, after which there was a good deal of
+attention to rifle-bolts, and a settling down to the more serious
+aspects of the adventure.  The escort began to look sullenly
+ferocious, as only Arabs can.
+
+There was a time, during the Turkish regime before the War, when
+Cook's Agency took tourists in parties to El-Kerak, and all the
+protection necessary was a handful of Turkish soldiers, whose
+thief employment on the trip was to gather fuel and pitch tents.
+Some one paid the Arabs to let tourists alone, and they normally
+did.  But the War changed all that.  A post-Armistice stranger in
+1920, with leather boots, was fair quarry for whoever had rifle
+or knife.
+
+We passed by a village or two, tucked into folds in the hills and
+polluting the blue sky with a smell of ageing dung, but nothing
+seemed disposed to happen.  A few men stood behind stone walls
+and stared at us sullenly.  The women looked up from their
+grindstones at the doors, covered their faces for convention's
+sake, and uncovered them again at once for curiosity.  There was
+nothing you could call a road between the villages, only a rocky
+cattle-track that seemed to take the longest possible way between
+two points;  and nobody seemed to own it, or to be there to
+challenge our right of way.
+
+But suddenly, after we had passed the third village and were
+walking the horses up a shoulder of a steep hill-top, three shots
+cracked out from in front of us to left and right.  Nobody fell,
+but if ever there was instantaneous response it happened then.
+Anazeh and his four galloped forward up-hill, firing as they rode
+for the cover of a breast-high ridge.  One man on the off-side
+tipped me out of the saddle, so suddenly that I had no chance to
+prevent him;  another caught me, and two others flung me into a
+hole behind a stone.  I heard the rear-guard scatter and run.
+Two men pitched Ahmed down on top of me, for he was valuable,
+seeing he could run an engine;  and thirty seconds later I peered
+out around the rock to get a glimpse of what was happening.
+
+There was not a man in sight.  I could see some of the horses
+standing under cover.  The firing was so rapid that it sounded
+almost like machine-gun practice.  A hairy arm reached out and
+pushed my head back, and after that, whenever I made the least
+movement, a man who was sniping from behind the sheltering rock
+swore furiously, and threatened to brain me with his butt-end.
+Beyond all doubt they regarded me as perishable freight;  so I
+hardly saw any of the fighting.
+
+Judging by the sound, I should say they fought their way up-hill
+in skirmish order, and when they got to the top the enemy--
+whoever they were--took to flight.  But that is guesswork.  There
+were two casualties on our side.  One man shot through the arm,
+which did not matter much;  he was well able to lie about what
+had happened and to boast of how many men he had slain before the
+bullet hit him.  The other was wounded pretty seriously in the
+jaw.  They came to me for first aid, taking it for granted that I
+knew something about surgery.  I don't.  I had a bad time
+bandaging both of them, using two of my handkerchiefs and strips
+from the protesting Ahmed's shirt.  However, I enjoyed it more
+than they did.
+
+When Anazeh shouted at last and we all rode to the hilltop there
+was a dead man lying there, stripped naked, with his throat cut
+across from ear to ear.  One of our men was wiping a long knife
+by stabbing it into the dirt.  There was also a led horse added
+to the escort.  Anazeh looked very cool and dignified;  he had an
+extra rifle now, slung by a strap across his shoulders.  He was
+examining a bandolier that had blood on it.
+
+We rode on at once, and for the next hour Ahmed was kept busy
+interpreting to me the lies invented by every member of the
+escort for my especial benefit.  If they were true, each man had
+slain his dozen;  but nobody would say who the opposing faction
+were.  When I put that question they all dried up and nobody
+would speak again for several minutes.
+
+It turned out afterward that there had been a sort of armistice
+proclaimed, and all the local chiefs had undertaken to observe it
+and cease from blood-feuds for three days, provided that each
+chief should prove peaceful intention by bringing with him only
+two men.  Three men in a party, and not more than three, had
+right of way.  The engagement may have been a simple protest
+against breach of the terms of the armistice, but I suspect there
+was more than that in it.
+
+At any rate, we were not attacked again on the road, although there
+were men who showed themselves now and then on inaccessible-looking
+crags, who eyed us suspiciously and made no answer to the shouted
+challenge of Anazeh's men.  When the track passed over a spur, or
+swung round the shoulder of a cliff, we could sometimes catch
+sight of other parties--always, though of three, before and behind
+us, proceeding in the same direction.
+
+We sighted the stone walls of El-Kerak at about midafternoon, and
+rode up to the place through a savage gorge that must have been
+impregnable in the old days of bows and arrows.  It would take a
+determined army today to force itself through the wadys and
+winding water-courses that guard that old citadel of Romans
+and crusaders.
+
+We approached from the Northwest corner, where a tower stands
+that they call Burj-ez-Zahir.  There were lions carved on it.  It
+looked as if the battlements had been magnificent at one time;
+but whatever the Turks become possessed of always falls into
+decay, and the Arabs seem no better.
+
+Beside the Burj-ez-Zahir is a tunnel, faced by an unquestionable
+Roman arch.  Outside it there were more than a dozen armed men
+lounging, and a lot of others looked down at us through the
+ruined loop-holes of the wall above.  Their leader challenged
+our numbers at once, and refused admission.  Judging by Anazeh's
+magnificently insolent reply it looked at first as if he
+intended fighting his way in.  But that turned out to be
+only his diplomatic manner--establishing himself, as it were,
+on an eminence from which he could make concessions without
+losing dignity.
+
+The arrangement finally agreed to was Anazeh's suggestion, but
+showed diplomatic genius on both sides.  The old man divided up
+his party into sets of three, and asserted that every set of
+three was independent.  There were twenty-two of us all told,
+including Ahmed, but he described Ahmed as a prisoner, and
+offered to have him shot if that would simplify matters.
+
+There was a great deal of windy discussion about Ahmed's fate,
+during which his face grew the color of raw liver and he joined
+in several times tearfully.  Once he was actually seized and
+half-a-dozen of the castle guards aimed at him;  but they
+compromised finally by letting him go in with hands tied.  Nobody
+really wanted the responsibility of shooting a man who had
+smuggled stolen cartridges across the Dead Sea, and might do it
+again if allowed to live.
+
+We rode for eighty or a hundred paces through an echoing tunnel
+into a city of shacks and ruined houses that swarmed with armed
+men, and it was evident that we were not the only ones who had
+ignored the rule about numbers.  Anazeh explained in an aside
+to me that only those would obey that rule who did not dare
+break it.
+
+"Whoever makes laws should be strong enough to enforce them," he
+said sagely.  "And whoever obeys such a law is at the mercy of
+those who break it," he added presently, by way of afterthought.
+To make sure that I understood him he repeated that remark
+three times.
+
+Every house had its quota of visitors, who lounged in the
+doorways and eyed us with mixed insolence and curiosity.  There
+were coffee-booths all over the place that seemed to have been
+erected for the occasion, where, under awnings made of stick and
+straw, men sat with rifles on their knees.  Those who had
+provender to sell for horses were doing a roaring trade--short
+measure and high price;  and the noise of grinding was incessant.
+The women in the back streets were toiling to produce enough to
+eat for all that host of notables.
+
+To have had to hunt for quarters in that town just then would
+have been no joke.  There was the mosque, of course, where any
+Moslem who finds himself stranded may theoretically go and sleep
+on a mat on the floor.  But we rode past the mosque.  It was
+full.  I would not have liked a contract to crowd one more in
+there.  Perhaps a New York Subway guard could have managed it.
+The babel coming through the open door was like the buzzing of
+flies on a garbage heap.
+
+I was trying to sit upright in that abominable saddle and look
+dignified, as became the honoured guest with a twenty-man escort,
+when a courteous-looking cut-throat wearing an amber necklace
+worth a wheat-field, forced his way through a crowd and greeted
+Anazeh like a long lost brother.  I examined him narrowly to make
+sure he was not Grim in disguise, but he had two fingers missing,
+and holes in his ears, which decided that question.
+
+After he had welcomed me effusively he led us through a rat-run
+maze of streets to a good-sized house with snub-nosed lions
+carved on the stone doorposts and a lot of other marks of both
+Roman and crusader.  No part of the walls was less than three
+feet thick, although the upper story had been rebuilt rather
+recently on a more economical and much less dignified scale.
+Nevertheless, there was a sort of semi-European air about the
+place, helped out by two casemented projections overhanging the
+narrow street.
+
+There was no need to announce ourselves.  The clatter of hoofs
+and shouts to ordinary folk on foot to get out of the way had
+done that already.  Sheikh ben Nazir opened the door in person.
+His welcome to me was the sort that comes to mind when you read
+the Bible story of the prodigal son returning from a far-off
+country.  I might have been his blood-relation.  But perhaps I am
+wrong about that;  bloodfeuds among blood-relations are
+notoriously savage.  He was the host, and I the guest.  Among
+genuine Arabs that is the most binding relation there is.
+
+He was no longer in blue serge and patent-leather boots, but
+magnificent in Arab finery, and he was tricked out in a  puzzling
+snowy-white head-dress that suggested politics without your
+knowing why.  He had told me, when I met him at the American
+Colony, that he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca more than once;
+but that white linen thing had nothing to do with his being a
+haji, any more than the expensive rings on the fingers of both
+hands had anything to do with his Arab nationality.
+
+After he had flattered and questioned me sufficiently about the
+journey to comply with etiquette I asked him whether Ahmed might
+not be untied.  The thong cutting the man's wrists. Sheikh hen
+Nazir gave the necessary order and it was obeyed at once.  The
+liquid-eyed rascal with the priceless amber necklace then led
+away the escort, Ahmed included, to some place where they could
+stall the horses, and--side-by-side, lest any question of
+precedence should be involved, Anazeh and I followed ben Nazir
+into the house.
+
+We were not the only guests there.  He ushered us into a square
+room, in which outrageous imported furniture, with gilt and
+tassels on it, stood out like loathsome sores against rugs and
+cushions fit for the great Haroun-al-Raschid's throne room.  Any
+good museum in the world would have competed to possess the rugs,
+but the furniture was the sort that France sends eastward in the
+name of "culture"--stuff for "savages" to sit on and be civilized
+while the white man bears the burden and collects the money.
+
+There were half-a-dozen Arabs reclining on two bastard Louis-
+something-or-other settees, who rose to their feet as we entered.
+There was another man, sitting on a cushion in a corner by
+himself, who did not get up.  He wore a white head-dress exactly
+like our host's, and seemed to consider himself somebody very
+important indeed.  After one swift searching glance at us he went
+into a brown study, as if a mere sheikh and a Christian alien
+were beneath his notice.
+
+We were introduced first of all to the men who had stood up to
+greet us, and that ceremony took about five minutes.  The Arab
+believes he ought to know all about how you feel physically, and
+expects you to reciprocate.  When that was over ben Nazir took us
+to the corner and presented, first me, then Anazeh to the
+solitary man in the white head-dress, who seemed to think himself
+too important to trouble about manners.
+
+Anazeh did not quite like my receiving attention first, and he
+liked still less the off-handed way in which the solitary man
+received us.  We were told his name was Suliman ben Saoud.  He
+acknowledged my greeting.  He and old Anazeh glared at each
+other, barely moving their heads in what might have been an
+unspoken threat and retort or a nod of natural recognition.
+Anazeh turned on his heel and joined the other guests.
+
+In some vague way I knew that Saoud was a name to conjure
+with, although memory refused to place it.  The man's air of
+indifference and apparently unstudied insolence suggested he was
+some one well used to authority.  Presuming on the one thing that
+I felt quite sure of by that time--my privileged position as a
+guest--I stayed, to try to draw him out.  I tried to open up
+conversation with him with English, French, and finally lame
+Arabic.  He took no apparent notice of the French and English,
+but he smiled sarcastically at my efforts with his own tongue.
+Except that he moved his lips he made no answer but went on
+clicking the beads of a splendid amber rosary.
+
+Ben Nazir, seeming to think that Anazeh's ruffled feelings called
+for smoothing, crossed the room to engage him in conversation, so
+I was left practically alone with the strange individual.  More
+or less in a spirit of defiance of his claim to such distinction,
+I sat down on a cushion beside him.
+
+He was a peculiar-looking man.  The lower part of his cheek--that
+side on which I sat--was sunk in, as if he had no teeth there.
+The effect was to give his whole face a twisted appearance.  The
+greater part of his head, of course, was concealed by the flowing
+white kaffiyi, but his skin was considerably darker than that of
+the   Palestine Arab.  He had no eyebrows at all, having shaved
+them off--for a vow I supposed.  Instead of making him look
+comical, as you might expect, it gave him a very sinister
+appearance, which was increased by his generally surly attitude.
+
+Once again, as when I had entered the room, he turned his head to
+give me one swift, minutely searching glance, and then turned his
+eyes away as if he had no further interest.  They were quite
+extraordinary eyes, brimful of alert intelligence;  and whereas
+from his general appearance I should have set him down at
+somewhere between forty and fifty, his eyes suggested youth, or
+else that keen, unpeaceful spirit that never ages.
+
+I tried him again in Arabic, but he answered without looking at
+me, in a dialect I had never heard before.  So I offered him a
+gold-tipped cigarette, that being a universal language.  He
+waived the offer aside with something between astonishment and
+disdain.  He had lean, long-fingered hands, entirely unlike
+those of the desert fraternity, who live too hard and fight
+too frequently to have soft, uncalloused skin and unbroken
+finger-nails.
+
+He did not exactly fascinate me.  His self-containment was
+annoying.  It seemed intended to convey an intellectual and moral
+importance that I was not disposed to concede without knowing
+more about him.  I suppose an Arab feels the same sensation when
+a Westerner lords it over him on highly moral grounds.  At any
+rate, something or other in the way of pique urged me to stir him
+out of his self-complacency, just as one feels urged to prod a
+bull-frog to watch him jump.
+
+He seemed to understand my remarks, for he took no trouble to
+hide his amusement at my efforts with the language.  But he
+only answered in monosyllables, and I could not understand
+those.  So after about five minutes I gave it up, and crossed
+the room to ben Nazir, who seized the opportunity to show me
+my sleeping-quarters.
+
+It proved to be a room like a monastery cell, up one flight of
+stone steps, with two other rooms of about the same size on
+either side of it.  At the end of the passage was a very heavy
+wooden door, with an iron lock and an enormous keyhole, which I
+suppose shut off the harem from the rest of the house;  but as I
+never trespassed beyond it I don't know.  I only do know that a
+woman's eye was watching me through that key-hole, and ben Nazir
+frowned impatiently at the sound of female giggling.
+
+"The Sheikh Anazeh will have the room on this side of you," he
+said, "and the Sheikh Suliman ben Saoud the room on the other.
+So you will be between friends."
+
+"Suliman ben Saoud seems a difficult person to make friends
+with," I answered.
+
+Ben Nazir smiled like a prince out of a picture-book--beautiful
+white teeth and exquisite benignance.
+
+"Oh, you mustn't mind him.  These celebrities from the centre of
+Arabia give themselves great airs.  To do that is considered
+evidence of piety and wisdom."
+
+I sat on the bed--quite a civilized affair, spotlessly clean.
+Ben Nazir took the chair, I suppose, like the considerate host he
+was, to give me the sensation of receiving in my own room.
+
+"He wears the same sort of head-dress you do.  What does it
+mean?" I asked.
+
+"I wear mine out of compliment to him--not that I have not
+always the right to wear it.  It is the Ichwan head-dress.
+It is highly significant."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+He hesitated for a moment, and then seemed to make up his mind
+that it did not much matter what he might divulge to an ignorant
+stranger soon to return to the United States.
+
+"It is difficult to explain.  You Americans know so little of our
+politics.  It is significant, I might say, of the New Arabia--
+Arabia for the Arabs.  The great ben Saoud, who is a relative of
+this man, is an Arabian chieftain who has welded most of Arabia
+into one, and now challenges King Hussein of Mecca for the
+caliphate.  Hussein is only kept on his throne by British gold,
+paid to him from India.  Ben Saoud also receives a subsidy from
+the British, who must continue to pay it, because otherwise ben
+Saoud will attack Hussein and overwhelm him.  That, it is
+believed, would mean a rising of all the Moslem world against
+their rulers--in Africa--Asia--India--Java--everywhere.  It began
+as a religious movement.  It is now political--although it is
+held together by religious zeal.  You might say that the Ichwans
+are the modern Protestants of Islam.  They are fanatical.  The
+world has never seen such fanaticism, and the movement spreads
+day by day."
+
+"You don't look like a fanatic," I said, and he laughed again.
+
+"I?  God forbid!  But I am a politician;  and to succeed a
+politician must have friends among all parties.  My one ambition
+is to see all Arabs united in an independent state reaching from
+this coast to the Persian Gulf.  To that end I devote my energy.
+I use all means available--including money paid me by the French,
+who have no intention of permitting any such development if they
+can help it."
+
+"And the British?"
+
+"For the present we must make use of them also.  But their yoke
+must go, eventually."
+
+"Then if America had accepted the Near East mandate, you would
+have used us in the same way?"
+
+"Certainly.  That would have been the easiest way, because
+America understands little or nothing of our politics.  America's
+money--America's schools and hospitals--America's war munitions--
+and then good-bye.  I am willing to use all means--all methods to
+the one end--Arabia for the Arabs.  After that I am willing to
+retire into oblivion."
+
+Nevertheless, ben Nazir did not convince me that he was an
+altruist who had no private ends to serve.  There was an
+avaricious gleam in ben Nazir's eyes.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Five
+
+"D'you mind if I use You?"
+
+For all his care to seem hospitable before any other
+consideration, ben Nazir looked ill at ease.  He led me down
+again to a dining-room hung with spears, shields, scimitars and
+ancient pistols, but furnished otherwise like an instalment-plan
+apartment.  He watched while a man set food before me.  It seemed
+that Anazeh had gone away somewhere to eat with his men.
+
+Ben Nazir's restlessness became so obvious that I asked at last
+whether I was not detaining him.  He jumped at the opening.  With
+profound apologies he asked me to excuse him for the remainder of
+the afternoon.
+
+"You see," he explained, "I came from Damascus to Jerusalem, so I
+was rather out of touch with what was going on here.  This
+conference of notables was rather a surprise to me.  It will not
+really take place until tomorrow, but there are important details
+to attend to in advance.  If you could amuse yourself--"
+
+The man who could not do that in a crusader city, crammed with
+sons of Ishmael who looked as if they had stepped out of the
+pages of the Old Testament, would be difficult to please.  I
+asked for Ahmed, to act as interpreter.  Ben Nazir volunteered to
+provide me with two men in addition as a sort of bodyguard.
+
+"Because Ahmed is a person who is not respected."
+
+It did not take ten minutes to produce Ahmed and the two men.
+The latter were six-foot, solemn veterans armed with rifles
+and long knives.  With them at my heels I set out to explore
+El-Kerak.
+
+"There is nothing to see," said Ahmed, who did not want to come.
+But Ahmed was a liar.  There was everything to see.  The only
+definite purpose I had in mind was to find Grim.  It was possible
+I might recognize him even through his disguise.  Failing that,
+he could not help but notice me if I walked about enough;  if so,
+he would find his own means of establishing communication.
+
+But you might as well have hunted for one particular pebble on a
+beach as for a single individual in all that throng.  Remembering
+Grim's disguise when I first saw him, I naturally had that
+picture of him in mind.  But all the Bedouins looked about as
+much alike as peas in a pod.  They stared at me as if I were a
+curio on exhibition, but they did not like being stared back at.
+
+There was no hint of violence or interference, and no apparent
+resentment of an alien's presence in their midst.  The loud-
+lunged bodyguard shouted out to all and sundry to make way for
+the "Amerikani," and way was made forthwith, although several
+times the bodyguard was stopped and questioned after I had
+passed, to make sure I was really American and not English.
+Ahmed assured me that if I had been English they would have
+"massacred" me.  In view of what transpired he may have been
+right, though I doubt it.  They might have held me as hostage.
+
+Not that they were in any kind of over-tolerant mood.  There was
+a man's dead body hanging by one foot from a great hook on a high
+wall, and the wall was splattered with blood and chipped by
+bullets.  I asked Ahmed what kind of criminal he might be.
+
+"He did not agree with them.  They are for war.  He was in favor
+of peace, and he made a speech two hours ago.  So they accused
+him of being a traitor, and he was tried and condemned."
+
+"Who tried him?"
+
+"Everybody did."
+
+"War with whom?" I asked.
+
+"The British."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because they favor the Zionists."
+
+"And that is what the conference is all about?"
+
+"Yes.  There is a man here from Damascus, who urges them to raid
+across the Jordan into Palestine.  He says that the Palestinian
+Arabs will rise then, and cut the throats of all the  Zionists.
+He says that Emir Feisul is going to attack the French in Syria,
+and that the British will have to go and help the French, so now
+is the time for a raid."
+
+"Is my host, ben Nazir, the man who is talking that way?  He has
+been to Damascus."
+
+"No.  Another, named Abdul Ali--a very rich sheikh, who comes
+here often with caravans of merchandise, and gives rich presents
+to notables."
+
+"Has ben Nazir anything to do with it?"
+
+"Who knows?  Mashallah!  The world is full of mysteries.  That
+Nazir is a knowing one.  They say of him:  whichever option is
+uppermost, that is always his opinion.  He is a safe man to
+follow for that reason.  Yet it is easier to follow water through
+a channel underground."
+
+We made our way toward the castle at the south side of the town,
+but were prevented from entering by a guard of feudal retainers,
+who looked as if they had been well drilled.  They were as solemn
+as the vultures that sat perched along the rampart overlooking a
+great artificial moat dividing the town from the high hill just
+beyond it.
+
+Nobody interfered when I climbed on the broken town wall and
+looked over.  The castle wall sloped down steeply into the moat,
+suggesting ample space within for dungeons and underground
+passages;  but there was nothing else there of much interest to
+see, only dead donkeys, a dying camel with the vultures already
+beginning on him, some dead dogs, heaps of refuse, and a lot more
+vultures too gorged to fly--the usual Arab scheme of sanitation.
+I asked one of my bodyguard to shoot the camel and he obliged me,
+with the air of a keeper making concessions to a lunatic.  Nobody
+took any notice of the rifle going off.
+
+It was when we turned back into the town again that the first
+inkling of Grim's presence in the place turned up.  A bulky-
+looking Arab in a sheepskin coat that stank of sweat so vilely
+that you could hardly bear the man near you, came up and stood in
+my way.  Barring the smell, he was a winning-looking rascal--
+truculent, swaggering, but possessed of a good-natured smile that
+seemed to say:  "Sure, I'm a rogue and a liar, but what else did
+you expect!"
+
+He spoke perfectly good English.  He said he wished to speak to
+me alone.  That was easy enough;  Ahmed and the bodyguard
+withdrew about ten paces, and he and I stepped into a doorway.
+
+"I am Mahommed ben Hamza," he said, with his head on one side, as
+if that explanation ought to make everything clear to me at once.
+"From Hebron," he added, when I did not seem to see the light.
+
+The wiser one looks, and the less one says, in Arab lands, the
+less trouble there's likely to be.  I tried to look extremely
+wise, and said nothing.
+
+"Where is Jimgrim?" he demanded.
+
+"If you can tell me that I'll give you ten piastres," I answered.
+
+"I will give you fifty if you tell me!"
+
+"Why do you want to know?"
+
+"He is my friend.  He said I should see him here.  But I have not
+seen him.  He said also I should see you.  You are the Amerikani?
+And you don't know where he is?  Truly?  Then, when you see him,
+will you say to him, 'Mahommed ben Hamza is here with nine men at
+the house of Abu Shamah?'  Jimgrim will understand."
+
+I nodded, and the man from Hebron walked away without another word.
+
+"Did he steal your watch?" asked Ahmed.  They are as jealous as
+children, those Arabs.
+
+There was a second execution while I walked back through the
+city.  A wide-eyed, panic-stricken poor devil with slobber on his
+jaws came tearing down-street with a mob at his heels.  We
+stepped into an alley to let the race go by, but he doubled down
+the alley opposite.  Before he had run twenty yards along it some
+one hit the back of his head with a piece of rock.  A second
+later they had pounced on him, and in less than a minute after
+that he was kicking in the noose of a hide rope slung over a
+house-beam.  I don't know what they hanged him for.  No one
+apparently knew.  But they used his carcase for a target and shot
+it almost to pieces.
+
+I kept on looking for Grim, although the task seemed hopeless.
+Of course, I could not give a hint of my real purpose.  But as
+Grim knew that the talk about a school-teacher was my passport
+to the place, it seemed possible that he might use that as an
+excuse for getting in touch with me.  So I told Ahmed to show
+me the schools.
+
+They weren't worth looking at--mere tumble-down sheds in which
+Moslem boys were taught to say the Koran by heart.  The places
+where Christian missionaries once had been were all turned into
+stores, and even into stables for the horses of the notables.
+
+So I returned to ben Nazir's house, and found old Sheikh Anazeh
+sitting outside on the step, as motionless as a tobacco-store
+Indian but twice as picturesque.  He still had his own rifle over
+his knees, and the plundered one slung over his shoulder by a
+strap;  he never stirred abroad unarmed.
+
+I asked him what the conference of notables was going to be
+about, and he told me to mind my own business.  That struck me as
+an excellent idea, so, not having slept at all the previous
+night, I went upstairs and lay on the bed.  There was no lock on
+the door, so I set the chair against it.
+
+Ben Nazir was a man who had traveled a great deal, and picked up
+western notions of hospitality to add to the inborn eastern sense
+of sacredness in the relation between host and guest.  It seems
+that an hour or two later he came to take me down to a Gargantuan
+meal, but, feeling the chair against the door, and hearing
+snores, he decided it was better manners to let me lie in peace.
+
+So I did not wake up again until after midnight.  The moonlight
+was streaming through a little high-perched window, and fell on
+the white-robed, ghostly-looking figure of a man, who sat with
+crossed legs on the end of the bed.  I thought I was dead and
+in hell.
+
+That is no picturesque exaggeration about a man's hair standing
+when he is terrified.  It really does.  I would have yelled
+aloud, if the breath would have come, but there is a trick of
+sudden fear that seems to grip your lungs and hold them impotent.
+The thing on the end of the bed had no eye-brows.  It grinned as
+if it knew all about evil, and were hungry, and living men were
+its food.
+
+I don't know how long I stared at the thing, but it seemed
+like a week.  At last it spoke, and I burst into a sweat with
+the reaction.
+
+"Good job you don't know how to fasten a door with a chair.  I'll
+have to show you that trick, or you'll be dying before your time.
+Sh-h-h!  Don't make a noise!"
+
+I sat up and looked more closely at him.  It was the Ichwan of
+the afternoon--Sheikh Suliman ben Saoud.  And he was speaking
+unmistakable American.  I began again to believe I was dreaming.
+He chuckled quietly and lit a cigarette.
+
+"Aren't you wise to me yet?"
+
+"Grim?"
+
+"Who else?"
+
+"But what's happened to your face?  You're all one-sided."
+
+"Oh, that's easy.  I just take out my false teeth.  The rest is
+done with a razor and some brown stain.  I thought you were going
+to spot me when you first came.  Did you?  I didn't think so.
+Did you act as well as all that?"
+
+"No.  Looked all over town for you afterward."
+
+"Uh-huh.  I thought that was too natural to be acting.  Pick up
+any news in town?"
+
+"Saw a hanging, and met a man who calls himself Mahommed ben
+Hamza.  He's waiting at the house of Abu Shamah."
+
+"Any men with him?"
+
+"Nine."
+
+"Three more than he promised.  Ben Hamza is the most honest thief
+and dependable liar in Palestine--a cheerful murderer who sticks
+closer than a brother.  I saved him once from being hung, because
+he smiles so nicely.  Any more news?"
+
+"I expect none that you don't know.  There's a sheikh named Abdul
+Ali from Damascus, preaching a raid into Palestine."
+
+Grim nodded.
+
+"I'm here to bag that bird."
+
+"Where do I come in?" I asked.
+
+"You are the plausible excuse, that's all.  Thanks to you old
+Anazeh got into El-Kerak with twenty men.  Two might not have
+been enough, even with ben Hamza and his nine."
+
+"Then our host ben Nazir is in on your game?"
+
+"Not he!  Up at headquarters in Jerusalem we knew all about this
+coming conference.  These folk are ready to explode.  The only
+way to stop it is to pull the plug--The plug is Abdul Ali.  We
+knew we could count on old Anazeh.  But the puzzle was how to get
+him and his men into El-Kerak.  When you told me ben Nazir had
+invited you, I saw the way to do it.  There wasn't anybody else
+except Anazeh that ben Nazir could have sent to fetch you, and
+the old boy is a dependable friend of ours."
+
+"That did not stop him from raiding two villages on the British
+side of the Dead Sea," I answered.
+
+"Did he?"
+
+"Sure.  I had part of a raided sheep for breakfast."
+
+"Um-m-m!  Well of all the--damn his impudence!  The shrewd old
+devil must have figured that we can't get after him for it,
+seeing how he's playing our game.  Bloody old horse-thief!  Well,
+he gets away with it, this time.  You'll have to be mighty
+careful not to seem to recognize me.  One slip and we're done
+for.  You're safe enough.  If they once get wise to me they'll
+pull me in pieces between four horses."
+
+"What's your plan?"
+
+"It's vague yet.  Got to be an opportunist.  I'm supposed to
+be a member of the ben Saoud family, recruiting members for
+the new sect--biggest thing in Arabia.  I'm invited to the
+conference on the strength of my supposed connection with the
+big Ichwan movement."
+
+"D'you propose to murder this Abdul Ali person, then, or have him
+murdered?" I asked.
+
+"Uh-uh!  Murder's out of my line.  Besides, that'ud do no good.
+Worse than useless.  They'd all cut loose.  Abdul Ali has got
+them together.  What with bribes and a lot of promises he has
+them keen on this raid.  If he were killed they'd say one of our
+spies did it.  They'd add vengeance to their other motives, which
+at present are mainly a desire for loot.  No, no.  Abdul Ali has
+got to disappear.  Then they'll believe he has betrayed them.
+Then, instead of raiding Palestine they'll confiscate his
+property and curse his ancestors.  D'you see the point?"
+
+"More or less.  But what good can I do?"
+
+"Do you mind if I use you?"
+
+I laughed.  "That's a hell of a silly question.  Any use my
+minding?  You've already used me.  You will do it again without
+consulting me.  I like it, as it happens.  But a fat lot you
+care whether I like it or not.  Isn't it a bit late in the day
+to ask permission?"
+
+"Oh, well.  You know the hangmen always used to beg the victim's
+pardon.  Will you obey orders?"
+
+"Yes.  But it might be easier if I know what I'm doing."
+
+"As soon as I know I'll explain," he answered.  "Where you can
+fit into the puzzle at the moment is by rooting for the school
+idea.  The worst robber chieftain from the farthest cluster of
+huts he calls his home town would like to see an American school
+here in El-Kerak.  If there were one he'd send his sons to it."
+
+"Okay.  I'll root like a dog for a buried bone."
+
+"Go to it.  That gives you the right to ask questions.  That will
+oblige ben Nazir to introduce you to any one you want to
+interview.  That will explain without any further argument
+whatever weakness you seem to have for talking to men in the
+street like Mahommed ben Hamza.  It would even explain away any
+politeness that I might show you in my capacity of Ichwan.  For
+safety's sake, and to create an impression, I take the line of
+being rude to every one;  but I might reasonably toss a few
+crumbs of condescension to an altruist from foreign parts.  At
+any rate, I'll have to take that chance.  D'you get me?"
+
+"You mean, you'll use me as intermediary? Messages to and from
+ben Hamza and that sort of thing?"
+
+"That's the idea, but there's more to it.  Did you bring that
+Bible along?  Are you superstitious?  Any notions like Long John
+Silver's about its being bad luck to spoil a Bible?  All right.
+Keep it in your pocket to make notes in.  If you can't get the
+whole book to me, tear a page out and send that, or give it to
+me, with the message spelled in dots under the words.  Make the
+dots faint, I've good eyes."
+
+"What sort of notes do you want from me?"
+
+"You mustn't mistake me for the prophet Ezekiel," he answered,
+grinning.  "'Thus saith the Lord' is all right when you know what
+you're talking about.  All I know for certain is that I've got
+to bag Abdul Ali.  If you get information that looks important
+to you, get it to me in the way I've told you, that's all.
+Don't be caught talking to me.  Don't look friendly.  Don't
+seem interested."
+
+"What else?"
+
+"If you can, keep old Anazeh sober."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Grim nodded meaningly:  "I've known easier jobs!"
+
+"The old sport thinks no more of me than of an express package
+he'd been hired to deliver," I answered.  "Drunk or sober, he'd
+brush me aside like a fly."
+
+"Well--wits were given us to use.  I guess you'll have to use
+yours.  Have you any?"
+
+"How the hell should I know?" I retorted.
+
+"If you find I haven't any, don't blame me."
+
+"I won't," he answered, and I believed him.
+
+"What else besides being dry-nurse to the king of the
+Amalekites?" I asked.
+
+"Don't trust Ahmed."
+
+"He's a good interpreter."
+
+"Yeh--and a poor peg.  You'll have to use him--some.  But don't
+trust him."
+
+"Does old Anazeh know you in that disguise?" I asked.
+
+"No, and he mustn't.  I'll tell you why.  All these people are
+religious fanatics.  A horrible death is the only fate they would
+consider for a man caught masquerading as a holy personage the
+way I'm doing.  But their fanaticism has a way of petering out
+when the gang's not there to see.  In his own village I think
+Anazeh would laugh if I talked this ruse over with him--
+afterwards.  But if he knew about it here, with all these other
+fanatics alert and fanning, he wouldn't dare not to expose me.
+It's a good job you asked that.  If I send any message to Anazeh
+through you, be sure you don't give me away."
+
+"How shall I make him believe the message is from you, then?"
+
+"Begin with 'Jimgrim says.'  He'll recognize the formula.  But if
+he questions that, say 'A lion knows a lion in the dark.'
+That'll serve a double purpose--convince him and jog his memory.
+He ignored a request of mine--once, and I was able to get back at
+him.  Tell you the story some day.  Nowadays he's more or less
+dependable, unless he gets a skin-full of redeye.  Well, make the
+most of your chance to sleep;  you may have to go short later.
+I'm going to saw off a cord or two myself."
+
+He left the room as silently as a ghost.  I don't doubt that he
+slept peacefully.  Subsequent acquaintance with him convinced me
+that he can go to sleep almost anywhere in any circumstances.
+And that is a very great gift, for it enables its owner to wear
+down any dozen who must sleep for stated hours at fixed
+intervals.  Grim snatches his whenever the chance comes, and goes
+without with apparent indifference.  He told me once that he
+dreams nearly all the time he is asleep.  But the dreams don't
+seem to trouble him.  I believe he dreams out the key to whatever
+problem puzzles him at the moment.
+
+My own sleep was done for that night, his advice notwithstanding.
+I lay listening to Anazeh's thunderous snores and naturally
+enough imagining every possible contingency and dozens that were
+totally impossible.  Nothing turned out in the least like any of
+my forecasts;  but that was not for want of trying to foresee it
+all.  I don't seem to possess any of that quiet gift of waiting
+to deal with each development on its merits, as and when it
+comes.  I have to speculate, and speculation is the ene my
+of peace.
+
+Looking back, I don't think I felt a bit afraid of the immediate
+future;  but that was due to ignorance of nearly all that the
+present held.  I think that was part of Grim's reason for helping
+me to reach El-Kerak in the first place;  he counted on my
+ignorance of danger to keep me cool-headed.  It is true, it did
+dawn on me that if my host were to suspect me of intriguing under
+cover of his protection, the protection might cease with
+disconcerting abruptness.  I realized to some extent what a
+predicament that would be.  But on the whole, I think the only
+real worry was the definite task Grim had given me--the
+thankless, and very likely desperate, inglorious one of trying to
+keep old Anazeh sober.
+
+Of course, the Koran forbids wine.  But whiskey is not wine.  And
+if you mix whiskey and wine together they cease to be either;
+they become a commodity of which the Prophet knew nothing and
+which he therefore did not forbid.  But if you introduce such a
+mixture into the stomach, and thence into the brain of an already
+fiery Bedouin;  and then introduce the Bedouin to trouble;  and
+if, in addition to the trouble, you provide impertinent, alien,
+and what he calls infidel restraint, it is fair to presume that
+the mixture might explode.
+
+It seemed to me I had been given too much to do.  In order to get
+introductions to the notables I must first get ben Nazir into a
+proper frame of mind.  Then, stammering in an alien tongue, I
+must make friends with chieftains who had never even heard of me;
+and that, when their minds were busy with another matter.  I must
+keep in touch with ben Hamza, and convey his messages to Grim
+without being seen or arousing suspicion.  In addition to all
+that I must keep sober by some means an old savage armed with
+two rifles and a knife, who had twenty cut-throats at his beck
+and call!
+
+While I pondered the problem in all its impossible bearings, loud
+snores to right and left of me, tenor and bass by turns,
+announced that Jimgrim and Anazeh were as blissfully oblivious to
+my worries as the bedbugs were that had come out of hiding and
+discovered me.  I began to feel homesick.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Six
+
+"That man will repay study."
+
+
+I got my first shot at Anazeh at dawn, when the muezzin began
+wailing over the city;  and I missed badly with both barrels.
+The old sheikh looked into my room, presumably to see if I was
+still alive, since he had guaranteed to see me safely back again
+across the Jordan, before rounding up his rascals for morning
+prayer.  They prayed together whenever possible, Anazeh keeping
+count of their genuflections.
+
+You could tell he had been drinking the night before the minute
+he thrust his head into the room.  He smelt like the lees of a
+rum barrel, and the rims of his eyes were red.
+
+Seeing I was awake he gave me the courteous, full-sounding "Allah
+ysabbhak bilkhair," and I asked him where he had dined the night
+before.  He mumbled something into his beard that I could not
+catch, but he could not have told me much more plainly to go to
+hell, even in plain English.  However, I had to get a foothold
+somewhere, so I said that I had heard that the liquor in El-Kerak
+was poisonous.
+
+As far as I understood his answer, he implied that it likely
+would be poisonous in the sort of place where I would buy it, but
+that he, Anazeh, need not be told how to suck eggs by any such a
+greenhorn as me.
+
+I tried him again.  I said that liquor taken in quantity would
+kill a man.
+
+"So will one bullet!" he answered.  "But, whereas a bullet in the
+belly causes pain before death, moiyit ilfadda (aqua fortis)
+causes pleasure;  and a man dies either way."
+
+He turned to go, rattling two rifle-butts against the door, but I
+had one last try to get on terms and said I hoped to see him at
+breakfast, or shortly afterward.
+
+"God is the giver both of eyesight and the things to see," he
+answered.  "I go to pray.  God will guide my footsteps afterward."
+
+I did not feel I had really made much headway, but I fared rather
+better with my host downstairs, who either did not pray with such
+enthusiasm or else had forestalled the muezzin.  At any rate, he
+was waiting for me near a table spread with sweet cakes and good
+French coffee.  After the usual string of pleasantries he became
+suddenly confidential, over-acting the part a little, as a man
+does who has something rather disagreeable up his sleeve that
+he means to spring on you presently.
+
+"I have been busy since an hour before dawn.  I have been
+consulting with my friend Suliman ben Saoud.  The situation here
+is very serious.  As long as you are my guest you are perfectly
+safe;  but if I were to send you away, the assembled notables
+might suspect you of being a spy, and might accuse me of
+harbouring a spy.  Do you see?  They would suppose you were
+returning to Jerusalem with information for the British.  That
+would have most unpleasant consequences--for both of us!"
+
+Clearly, Grim in the guise of ben Saoud had been busy, and it was
+up to me to seize my cue alertly.  I was at pains to look
+alarmed.  Ben Nazir grew solicitous.
+
+"Rest assured, you are safe as my guest.  But Suliman ben Saoud
+was annoyed to think a stranger should be here at such a time as
+this.  He took me to task about you.  He is also my guest, as I
+reminded him, but he is a truculent fellow.  He insisted that the
+assembled notables have the right to satisfaction regarding your
+bona fides.  It was no use my saying, as I did repeatedly, that I
+personally guarantee you.  He asked me how much I know about you.
+I had to confess that what I actually know amounts to very
+little."
+
+"Well?" I said.  "What does the old grouch want?"
+
+"He thinks that you should be presented to the assembled notables
+at noon today.  In fact, he demands that they should catechize
+you regarding your ideas about a school."
+
+"I have no objection."
+
+"But, I am sorry to have to add this:  it is probable the
+notables will insist on your remaining in El-Kerak until after
+that shall have taken place which they have been summoned to
+decide on.  They will not risk your returning before the--"
+
+
+"Before what?"
+
+"The--ah--they contemplate a raid!"
+
+"So I'm a prisoner?"
+
+"No, no!  Mon dieu, what do you think of me!  Even the fanatical
+Suliman ben Saoud saw the force of the argument when I spoke of
+the sanctity of any guest here on my invitation.  But he thinks--
+and I agree with him, that as a precaution you should first call
+on Sheikh Abdul Ali.  You will find him a very agreeable man, who
+will receive you with proper courtesy.  He is here from Damascus,
+and exercises a great influence.  Once his mind is at ease about
+you, he will satisfy all the others.  Are you agreeable?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+So we smoked a cigarette together after the coffee, and then set
+forth on foot, for the distance was not great, preceded and
+surrounded by armed retainers.  I imagine the armed men were more
+for the sake of appearance than protection.  Ben Nazir seemed
+popular.  But the escort drove other pedestrians out of the way
+as roughly as they did the unspeakable dogs that infested every
+offal-heap.  The street that we followed was, of course, the open
+sewer for the houses on either hand, and its condition was a
+credit to the mangy curs that so resented our intrusion.
+
+Abdul Ali's house, if his it was, was a fairly big square
+building near the middle of the town.  It did not look unlike one
+of the old-time New York precinct stations, with its big windows
+protected by iron grilles, and a flight of stone steps leading up
+to a door exactly in the middle of the front wall.
+
+There were thirty or forty capable-looking men hanging about the
+place.  Abdul Ali owned more than one camel caravan, and every
+man connected with the business looked on himself as a member of
+one big feudal family.  They were all armed.  Most of them had
+modern rifles.
+
+We were admitted into a room that faced on the street, furnished
+entirely in the eastern style, except for two gilt chairs against
+the wall.  The walls were hung with carpets and the floor was
+covered with Bokhara rugs three deep.
+
+No doubt in order to emphasize his own importance, Abdul Ali kept
+us waiting in that room for ten minutes before he condescended to
+enter.  But when he did come at last he was at pains to seem
+agreeable, which was not quite his natural attitude.
+
+I had never seen a more offensive personality, although at the
+first glance he did not arouse actual dislike.  Distaste for him
+dawned, and grew.  He was certainly not physically attractive,
+although the Syrian Arab costume made him picturesque.  The first
+thing I noticed was the fatness of his hands--those of a giver of
+dishonest gifts.  When he shook hands you felt in some subtle way
+that he was sure your conscience was for sale, that he would
+purchase it for any reasonable figure, and that he believed he
+had plenty of money with which to buy you and all your relatives.
+
+He was a little puffy under the eyes, had a firm mouth, rather
+thick lips, and his small black moustache was turned up like the
+Kaiser's, which gave him a cockily self-assured appearance.  For
+the rest, he was a rather military-looking person, although his
+flowing robe partly concealed that;  stockily rather than heavily
+built;  and of rather more than middle height.  He wore one ring--a
+sapphire of extraordinary brilliance, of which he was immensely
+proud.  When I noticed it he said at once that it had been given
+him by the late Sultan Abdul Hamid.
+
+He spoke German from choice, so we conversed in German, which
+annoyed ben Nazir, who could not understand a word of it.  And
+from first to last throughout that interview, and subsequently to
+the point where Jimgrim out-maneuvered and out-played him, he
+relied on the German philosophy of self-assertion that teaches
+how to get and keep the upper hand by making yourself believe in
+your own super-intelligence and then speaking, acting, making
+plans in logical accord with that belief.  It works finely until
+somebody spoils the whole thing by pricking the super-intelligence
+bladder and letting out all the wind.
+
+Although he spoke German, he was not by any means pro-German in
+his motives.  He was at pains to make that clear.  Evidently he
+had been pro-German once, until he saw the writing on the wall.
+He was conscious of the need to offset past prejudices before
+suggesting his enormous ability along advanced lines.
+
+"You come at an interesting time," he said.  "You find us in
+transition.  Before the War, and almost until the end of it, most
+Arabs believed in the German destiny.  English gold commanded the
+allegiance of an Arab army, but every last man in that army was
+ready to follow the German standard at the proper time.  That
+only shows how ignorant these people are.  As soon as it became
+evident that the Arab destiny lies in the hands of Arabs
+themselves most of them immediately began to clamour for an
+American mandate, because that would give them temporary masters
+who could protect them, yet at the same time who would be too
+ignorant of real conditions to prevent secret preparations for a
+pan-Arabian revolt.  All very absurd, of course."
+
+He had no idea how absurd he himself appeared.  He launched into
+a tirade designed to make him seem a super-statesman in the eyes
+of a stranger who did not care what he was.  The more he talked
+himself into a delirium of self-esteem the less his character
+impressed me.  I even ran into the danger of under-estimating him
+because he liked himself so much.
+
+"I'm here to look into the prospects for a school," I said.
+
+"Yes, yes.  Very estimable.  You shall have my support."  He
+paused for me to fawn on him, and my neglect to do it spurred him
+to further self-revelation.
+
+"You must look to me for support if you hope for success.  There
+is no cohesion here without me.  I am the only man in El-Kerak to
+whom they all listen, and even I have difficulty in uniting them
+at times.  But a school is a good idea, and under my auspices you
+will succeed."
+
+For the moment I thought he suspected me of wanting to teach
+school myself.  I hastened to correct the impression:
+
+"All I promise to do is to tell people in the States who might be
+interested."
+
+"Exactly."  He had been coming at this point all along in his own
+way.  "So there is no hurry.  It makes no difference that you
+must stay in El-Kerak a little longer than you intended.  You
+shall be presented to the council of notables under my auspices.
+In my judgment it is important that you remain here for some
+little time."
+
+I suppose the men who can analyze their thoughts, and separate
+the wise impulses from the rash ones, are the people whom the
+world calls men of destiny and whom history later assigns to its
+halls of fame.  The rest of us simply act from pique, prejudice,
+passion or whatever other emotion is in charge.  I know I did.
+It was resentment.  It was so immensely disagreeable to be
+patronized by this puffy-eyed sensualist that I could not resist
+the impulse to argue with him.
+
+"I don't see the force of that," said I.  "My plans are made to
+return to Jerusalem tomorrow."
+
+I could not have done better as it happened.  I suppose there is
+some theory that has been written down in books to explain how
+these things work, at any rate to the satisfaction of the fellow
+who wrote the book.  But Grim, referring to it afterward, called
+it naked luck.  I would rather agree with Grim than argue with
+any inky theorist on earth, having seen too many theories upset.
+Luck looks to me like a sweeter lady, and more worshipful than
+any of the goddesses they rename nowadays and then dissect in
+clinics.  At any rate, by naked luck I prodded Abdul Ali where he
+kept his supply of mistakes.  Instead of calling my bluff, as he
+doubtless should have done, he set out to win me over to his
+point of view.  Whichever way you analyze it in the light of
+subsequent events, the only possible conclusion is that it was my
+turn to be lucky and Abdul Ali's to make a fool of himself.
+Nobody could have made a fool of him better than he did.
+
+"I must dissuade you," he said, trying to hide wilfulness under
+an unpleasant smile.  "I will offer inducements."
+
+"They'll have to be heavy," I said, "to weigh against what I have
+in mind."
+
+He had kept ben Nazir and me standing all this time.  Now he
+offered me one of the chairs, took the other himself, and
+motioned ben Nazir to a cushion near the window.  A servant
+brought in the inevitable coffee and cigarettes.  Then he laid a
+hand on my knee for special emphasis--a fat, pale, unprincipled
+hand, with that great sapphire gleaming on the middle finger.
+
+"It happens that this idea of a school comes just at the right
+moment.  I have been searching my mind for just some such idea to
+lay before the notables.  As we are talking a language that none
+else here understands, I can safely take you into confidence.  A
+raid is being planned into British territory."
+
+He paused to let that sink in, and tapped my knee with his
+disgusting fingers until I could have struck him from irritation.
+
+"There is, however, an element of disagreement.  There is
+uncertainty as to the outcome, in the minds of some of the chiefs
+who live nearest to the border.  The feeling among them is that
+perhaps I am urging them on in order to serve my own ambition at
+their expense.  They appreciate the opportunity to loot;  but
+they say that the British will hit back afterwards, and they,
+being nearest to the border, will suffer most;  whereas I stand
+to gain all and to lose nothing.  Very absurd, of course, but
+that is their argument."
+
+"Surely," I said, "you don't expect me to take my coat off and
+preach a jihad against the British?"
+
+"Im Gotteswillen!  No, no, no!  This is my meaning:  if I can go
+before them with the offer of a school for El-Kerak, which the
+very worst scoundrel among them desires with all his ignorant
+heart;  and if I can produce a distinguished gentleman from
+America, present among them on my invitation for the sole purpose
+of making the arrangements for such a school, that will convince
+them that I have their interests really at heart.  Do you see?"
+
+Again the irritating fingers drumming on my knee.  I did not
+answer for fear of betraying ill-temper.
+
+"I am a statesman, sir.  I understand the arguments with which
+whole nations may deceive themselves.  I have made it my
+profession to detect the trends of thought and the tides of
+unrest.  Psychological moments are for me a fascinating study.  I
+can recognize them."
+
+He laid the fat hand on my shoulder for a change, and tried to
+look into my eyes;  but I was watching the edge of a curtain at
+the far end of the room.
+
+"Now, to you, an American, our local dispute means nothing.  This
+raid is no affair of yours.  You wash your hands of it.  You, an
+altruist, are interested only in a school.  I offer you
+opportunity, building, subsidy, guarantees.  You reciprocate by
+giving me a talking point.  I shall make use of the opportunity.
+That is settled.  And, let me see, I promised you inducements,
+didn't I?"
+
+He looked, at me and I looked at him.  He waited for a hint of
+some sort, but I made no move to help him out.
+
+"What shall we say?"
+
+I was as interested in the result of his appraisal as he was in
+making it.  Whether complimentary or not, another's calculated
+judgment of your character is a fascinating thing to wait for.
+
+"I think you will be getting full value.  I shall introduce you
+to all the notables," he said at last.    "To a man of your
+temperament it will be a privilege to attend the council, and to
+know in advance all that is going to happen.  There will be no
+objection to that, because it is already decided you will remain
+in El-Kerak until after the--er--raid.  The notables will
+understand from me that your mouth is sealed until after the
+event.  You shall be let into our secrets.  There--is that
+not equitable?"
+
+It was shrewd.  I did not believe for a minute that he would let
+me into all their secrets, but he could not have imagined a
+greater temptation for me.  Since I would not have taken his word
+that black was not white, I did not hesitate to pretend to agree
+to his terms.
+
+"I must have an interpreter," I said.  "Otherwise I shall
+understand very little."
+
+"I will supply you an interpreter--a good one."
+
+"No, thank you.  Any man of yours might only tell me what he
+thought correct for me to hear.  If I'm to get a price for my
+services, I want the full price.  I want to hear everything.  I
+must be allowed to bring my own interpreter."
+
+"Who would he be?"
+
+"I don't know yet."
+
+"That man Ahmed, for instance?  I have been told he is one of
+your party.  Ahmed would do very well."
+
+"No, not Ahmed."
+
+"Who then?"
+
+"I will find a man."
+
+He hesitated.  If ever a man was reviewing all the possible
+contingencies, murder of me included, behind a mask of superficial
+courtesy, that man was he.
+
+"He should be a man acceptable to the notables," he said at last.
+"I ought to know his name in advance."
+
+"I must have unfettered choice, or I won't attend the
+mejlis."  [Council]
+
+"Oh, very well. Only the interpreter, too, will have to remain
+afterward in El-Kerak."
+
+I looked at that curtain again, for it was moving in a way that
+no draft from the open window could account for.  But at last the
+movement was explained.  Before Abdul Ali could speak again a man
+stepped out from behind it, crossed the room, and went out
+through the door, closing it silently behind him.  He was a man I
+knew, and the last man I had expected to see in that place.  I
+suppose Abdul Ali noticed my look of surprise.
+
+"You know him?" he asked.
+
+"By sight.  He was at Sheikh ben Nazir's house yesterday."
+
+"That is Suliman ben Saoud, a stranger from Arabia, but a man
+of great influence because of his connection with the Ichwan
+movement.  If you are interested in our types that man will
+repay study."
+
+"Good.  I'll try to study him," said I.
+
+It was all I could do to keep a straight face.  So Jimgrim was
+the source of Abdul Ali's inspirations!  I wondered what subtle
+argument he could have used to make the sheikh so keen on baiting
+his hook with the school proposal.  His nerve, in waiting behind
+that curtain until he knew his scheme had succeeded, and then
+walking out bold as brass to let me know that he had overheard
+everything, was what amused me.  But I managed not to smile.
+
+"What time is the mejlis?"  I asked.
+
+"At noon."
+
+"Then I'll go and hunt up my interpreter."
+
+Ben Nazir came out with me, in a blazing bad temper.  He was as
+jealous as a pet dog, and inclined to visit the result on me.
+
+"Very polite, I am sure!  Most refined!  Most courteous!  In your
+country, sir, does a guest reward his host for hospitality by
+talking in a language that his host can't understand?  Perhaps
+you would rather transfer your presence to Abdul Ali's house?
+Pray do not consider yourself beholden to me, in case you would
+prefer his hospitality!"
+
+I tried in vain to pacify him.  I explained that the choice of
+language had been Abdul Ali's, and offered to tell him now in
+French every word that had passed.  But he would not listen.
+
+"It would not be difficult for a man of your intelligence to make
+up a story," he said rudely.
+
+"Abdul Ali can talk French.  If it had been intended that I
+should know the truth that conversation would have been in
+French.  Shall I send your bag to Abdul Ali's house?"
+
+"No," I said.  "Give it to Anazeh.  He is answerable for
+my safety until I reach Palestine again.  Thank you for a
+night's lodging."
+
+He walked away in a great huff, and I set out for the house of
+Abu Shamah, using my scant store of Arabic to ask the way.
+Mahommed ben Hamza was lolling on the stone veranda, gossiping
+with half-a-dozen men.  He came the minute I beckoned him.
+
+"I've seen Jimgrim," I said.  "You're to come with me at noon to
+the mejlis as my interpreter."
+
+He grinned delightedly.
+
+"And see here, you smelly devil:  Here's money.  Buy yourself a
+clean shirt, a new coat, and some soap.  Wash yourself from head
+to foot, and put the new clothes on, before you meet me at the
+castle gate ten minutes before noon.  Those are Jimgrim's orders,
+do you understand?"
+
+"Taht il-amr! (Yours to command)" he answered laughing.
+
+I went and bought myself an awful meal at the house of a man who
+rolled Kabobs between his filthy fingers.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Seven
+
+"Who gives orders to me?"
+
+
+The wonderful thing about Moab is that everything happens in a
+story-book setting, with illustrations by Maxfield Parrish and
+Wyeth and Joe Coll, and all the rest of them, whichever way
+you look.
+
+
+Imagine a blue sky--so clear-blue and pure that you can see
+against it the very feathers in the tails of wheeling kites, and
+know that they are brown, not black.  Imagine all the houses, and
+the shacks between them, and the poles on which the burlap
+awnings hang, painted on flat canvas and stood up against that
+infinite blue.  Stick some vultures in a row along a roof-top--
+purplish--bronze they'll look between the tiles and sky.  Add
+yellow camels, gray horses, striped robes, long rifles, and a
+searching sun-dried smell.  And there you have El-Kerak, from
+the inside.
+
+From any point along the broken walls or the castle roof you can
+see for fifty miles over scenery invented by the Master-Artist,
+with the Jordan like a blue worm in the midst of yellow-and-green
+hills twiggling into a turquoise sea.
+
+The villains stalk on-stage and off again sublimely aware of
+their setting.  The horses prance, the camels saunter, the very
+street-dogs compose themselves for a nap in the golden sun, all
+in perfect harmony with the piece.  A woman walking with a stone
+jar on her head (or, just as likely, a kerosene can) looks as if
+she had just stepped out of eternity for the sake of the picture.
+And not all the kings and kaisers, cardinals and courtezans
+rolled into one great swaggering splurge of majesty could hold a
+candle to a ragged Bedouin chief on a flea-bitten pony, on the
+way to a small-town mejlis.
+
+So it was worth a little inconvenience, and quite a little risk
+to see those chiefs arrive at the castle gate, toss their reins
+to a brother cut-throat, and swagger in, the poorest and least
+important timing their arrival, when they could, just in advance
+of an important man so as to take precedence of him and delay
+his entrance.
+
+Mindful of my charge to keep Anazeh sober, and more deadly afraid
+of it than of all the other risks, I hung about waiting for him,
+hoping he would arrive before Abdul Ali or ben Nazir.  I wanted
+to go inside and be seated before either of those gentry came.
+But not a bit of it.  I saw Anazeh ride up at the head of his
+twenty men, halt at a corner, and ask a question.  His men were in
+military order, and looked not only ready but anxious to charge
+the crowd and establish their old chief's importance.
+
+Mahommed ben Hamza, not quite so smelly in his new clothes, was
+standing at my elbow.
+
+"Sheikh Anazeh beckons you," he said.
+
+So the two of us worked our way leisurely through the crowd
+toward the side-street down which Anazeh had led his party.  We
+found them looking very spruce and savage, four abreast, drawn up
+in the throat of an alley, old Anazeh sitting his horse at their
+head like a symbol of the ancient order waiting to assault the
+new.  My horse was close beside him, held by Ahmed, acting
+servitor on foot.
+
+The old man let loose the vials of his wrath on me the minute I
+drew near, and Mahommed ben Hamza took delicious pleasure in
+translating word for word.
+
+"Is that the way an effendi in my care should be seen at such a
+time--on foot?  Am I a maskin* that you do not ride?  Is the
+horse not good enough?" [*Poor devil]
+
+I made ben Hamza explain that I was to attend the mejlis as
+Sheikh Abdul Ali's guest.  But that only increased his wrath.
+
+"So said ben Nazir!  Shall a lousy Damascene trick me out of
+keeping my oath?  You are in my safekeeping until you tread on
+British soil again, and my honour is concerned in it!  No doubt
+that effeminate schemer of schemes would like to display you at
+the mejlis as his booty, but you are mine!  Did you think you are
+not under obligation to me?"
+
+I answered pretty tactfully.  I said that Allah had undoubtedly
+created him to be a protector of helpless wayfarers and the very
+guardian of honour.  Mahommed ben Hamza added to the compliments
+while rendering mine into Arabic.  But though Anazeh's wrath was
+somewhat mollified, he was not satisfied by any means.
+
+"Am I a dog," he demanded, "that I should be slighted for the
+sake of that Damascene?"
+
+It looked to me like the proper moment to try out Grim's
+magic formula.
+
+"You are the father of lions.  And a lion knows a lion in the
+dark!" said I.
+
+The effect was instantaneous.  He puffed his cheeks out in
+astonishment, and sucked them in again.  The overbearing anger
+vanished as he leaned forward in the saddle to scrutinize my
+face.  It was clear that he thought my use of that phrase might
+just possibly have been an accident.
+
+"Jimgrim says--"
+
+"Ah!  What says Jimgrim?  Who are you that know where he is?"
+
+"A lion knows a lion in the dark!" I said again, that there might
+be no mistake about my having used the words deliberately.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Praised be Allah!  Blessings upon His Prophet!  What
+says Jimgrim?"
+
+"Jimgrim says I am to keep by Anazeh and watch him, lest he drink
+strong drink and lose his honour by becoming like a beast without
+decency or understanding!"
+
+"Mount your horse, effendi.  Sit beside me."
+
+I complied.  Ben Hamza took the place of Ahmed, who went to the
+rear looking rather pleased to get out of the limelight.
+
+"What else says Jimgrim?" asked Anazeh.
+
+"There will be a message presently, providing Sheikh Anazeh
+keeps sober!"
+
+To say that I was enjoying the game by this time is like trying
+to paint heaven with a tar-brush.  You've got to be on the inside
+of an intrigue before you can appreciate the thrill of it.
+Nobody who has not had the chance to mystify a leader of cheerful
+murderers in a city packed with conspirators, with the shadow of
+a vulture on the road in front, and fanged death waiting to be
+let loose, need talk to me of excitement.
+
+"Well and good," said Anazeh.  "When Jimgrim speaks, I listen!"
+
+Can you beat that?  Have you ever dreamed you were possessed of
+some magic formula like "Open Sesame," and free to work with it
+any miracle you choose?  Was the dream good?  I was awake--on a
+horse--in a real eastern alley--with twenty thieves as picturesque
+as Ali Baba's, itching for action behind me!
+
+"Abdul Ali of Damascus thinks he will enter the mejlis last and
+create a great sensation," said Anazeh.  "That son of infamies
+deceives himself.  I shall enter last.  I shall bring you.  There
+will be no doubt who is important!"
+
+Just as he spoke there clattered down the street at right angles
+to us a regular cavalcade of horsemen led by no less than Abdul
+Ali with a sycophant on either hand.  Cardinal Wolsey, or some
+other wisehead, once remarked that a king is known by the
+splendour of his servants.  Abdul Ali's parasites were dressed
+for their part in rose-coloured silk and mounted on beautiful
+white Arab horses so severely bitted that they could not help
+but prance.
+
+Abdul Ali, on the other hand, played more a king-maker's role,
+dark and sinister in contrast to their finery, on a dark brown
+horse that trotted in a business-like, hurry-up-and-get-it-done-
+with manner.  He rode in the German military style, and if you
+can imagine the Kaiser in Arab military head-dress, with high
+black riding boots showing under a brown cloak, you have his
+description fairly closely.  The upturned moustaches and the
+scowl increased the suggestion, and I think that was deliberate.
+
+"A dog--offspring of dogs!  Curse his religion and his bed!"
+growled Anazeh in my ear.
+
+The old sheikh allowed his enemy plenty of time.  To judge by the
+way the men behind us gathered up their reins and closed in knee-
+to-knee, they would have liked to spoil Abdul Ali's afternoon by
+riding through his procession and breaking its formation.  But
+Anazeh had his mind set, and they seemed to know better than to
+try to change it for him.  We waited until noises in the street
+died down, and then Ahmed was sent to report on developments.
+
+"Abdul Ali has gone into the mejlis and the doors are closed," he
+announced five minutes later.  That seemed to suit Anazeh
+perfectly, for his eyes lit up with satisfaction.  Evidently
+being excluded from the council was his meat and drink.  He gave
+no order, but rode forward and his men followed as a snake's tail
+follows its head, four abreast, each man holding his rifle as
+best suited him;  that gave them a much more warlike appearance
+than if they had imitated the western model of exact conformity.
+
+We rode down-street toward the castle at a walk, between very
+interested spectators who knew enough to make way without being
+told.  And at the castle gate we were challenged by a man on
+foot, who commanded about twice our number of armed guards.
+
+"The hour is passed," he announced.  "The order is to admit no
+late-comers."
+
+"Who gives orders to me?" Anazeh retorted.
+
+"It was agreed by all the notables."
+
+"I did not agree.  Wallah!  Thou dog of a devil's dung-heap, say
+you I am not a notable?"
+
+"Nevertheless--"
+
+"Open that gate!"
+
+They opened it.  Two of the men began to do it even before their
+chief gave the reluctant order.  Anazeh started to ride through
+with his men crowding behind.  But that, it seemed, was
+altogether too much liberty to take with the arrangements.
+Shouting all together, the gate-guards surged in to take hold of
+bridles and force Anazeh's dependents back.  Teeth and eyes
+flashed.  It looked like the makings of a red-hot fight.
+
+"No retainers allowed within the gate!  Principals only!" roared
+the captain of the guard, in Arabic that sounded like explosions
+of boiling oil.
+
+Anazeh, Mahommed ben Hamza and I were already within the
+courtyard.  Four of Anazeh's followers made their way, through
+after us before any one could prevent them.  At that moment there
+came a tremendous clattering of hoofs and the crowd outside the
+gate scattered this and that way in front of about a hundred of
+the other chiefs' dependents, who had dutifully stayed outside
+and had sought shade some little distance off.
+
+Whether the sudden disturbance rattled him, or whether he
+supposed that all the other truculent ruffians were going to try
+to follow our example, at any rate the man on duty lost his head
+and shouted to his men to shut the gate again.  Before they could
+do it every one of Anazeh's gang had forced his way through.
+There we all were on forbidden ground, with a great iron-studded
+gate slammed and bolted behind us.  To judge by the row outside
+the keepers of the gate had got their hands full.
+
+In front of us was a short flight of stone steps, and another
+great wooden door set in stone posts under a Roman arch.  There
+were only two armed men leaning against it.  They eyed Anazeh and
+our numbers nervously.
+
+"Open!"
+
+Anazeh could use his voice like a whip-crack.  They fumbled with
+the great bolt and obeyed, swinging the door wide.  I thought for
+a minute that my arrogant old protector meant to ride up the
+steps and through the door into the mejlis hall with all his men;
+but he was not quite so high-handed as that.
+
+After a good long look through the door, I suppose to make sure
+there was no ambush inside waiting for him, he dismounted, and
+ordered his men to occupy a stable-building across the courtyard,
+from which it would have been impossible to dislodge them without
+a siege.  Then, when he had seen the last man disappear into it,
+he led me and Mahommed ben Hamza up the steps.
+
+Ben Hamza was grinning like a schoolboy, beside himself with
+delight at the prospect of elbowing among notables, as well as
+inordinately proud of his new clothes and the smell of imported
+soap that hung about him like an aura.  But Anazeh looked like an
+ancient king entering into his own.  Surely there was never
+another man who could stride so majestically and seem so
+conscious of his own ability to override all law.
+
+We passed under the shadowy arch and down a cool stone passage to
+yet another heavy door that barred our way.  Anazeh thundered on
+it with his rifle-butt, for there were no attendants there to do
+his bidding.  There was no answer.  Only a murmur of voices
+within.  So he thundered again, and this time the door opened
+about six inches.  A face peered through the opening cautiously,
+and asked what was wanted.
+
+"What is this?" asked Anazeh.  "Is a mejlis held without my
+presence?  Since when?"
+
+"You are too late!"
+
+The face disappeared.  Some one tried to close the door.
+Anazeh's foot prevented.
+
+"Open!" he demanded.  The butt of his rifle thundered again on
+the wood.
+
+There was a babel of voices inside, followed by sudden silence.
+Anazeh made a sign to Mahommed ben Hamza and me.  We all three
+laid our shoulders against the door and shoved hard.  Evidently
+that was not expected;  it swung back so suddenly that we were
+hard put to it to keep our feet.  The man who had opened the door
+lay prone on the floor in front of us with his legs in the air,
+and Anazeh laughed at him--the bitterest sign of disrespect one
+Arab can pay to another.
+
+"Since when does the word of a Damascene exclude an honourable
+sheikh from a mejlis in El-Kerak?" asked Anazeh, standing in
+the doorway.
+
+He was in no hurry to enter.  The dramatic old ruffian understood
+too well the value of the impression he made standing there.  The
+room was crowded with about eighty men, seated on mats and
+cushions, with a piece of carpeted floor left unoccupied all down
+the centre--a high-walled room with beautifully vaulted ceiling,
+and a mullioned window from which most of the glass was gone.
+The walls were partly covered with Persian and other mats, but
+there was almost no furniture other than water-pipes and little
+inlaid tables on which to rest coffee-cups and matches.  The air
+was thick with smoke already, and the draft from the broken
+windows wafted it about in streaky clouds.
+
+Every face in the room was turned toward Anazeh.  I kept as much
+as possible behind him, for you can't look dignified in that
+setting if all you have on is a stained golf suit, that you have
+slept in.  It seemed all right to me to let the old sheikh have
+all the limelight.
+
+But he knew better.  Perhaps my erstwhile host ben Nazir had
+understood a little German after all.  More likely he had divined
+Abdul Ali's purpose to make use of me.  Certainly he had poured
+the proper poison in Anazeh's ear, and the old man understood my
+value to a nicety.
+
+He took me by the arm and led me in, Mahommed ben Hamza following
+like a dog that was too busy wagging its tail to walk straight.
+You would have thought Anazeh and I were father and son by
+the way he leaned toward me and found a way for me among the
+crowded cushions.
+
+He had no meek notions about choosing a low place.  Expecting to
+be taken at his own valuation, he chose a high place to begin
+with.  There were several unoccupied cushions near the door, and
+there were half-a-dozen servants busy in a corner with coffee-
+pots and cakes.  He prodded one of the servants and ordered him
+to take two cushions to a place he pointed out, up near the
+window close to Abdul Ali.  There was no room there.  That
+was the seat of the mighty.  You could not have dropped a
+handkerchief between the men who wanted to be nearest the throne
+of influence.  But Anazeh solved that riddle.  He strode, stately
+and magnificent, up the middle of the carpet amid a mutter of
+imprecations.  And when one more than ordinarily indignant sheikh
+demanded to know what he meant by it, he paused in front of him
+and laid his right hand on my shoulder.  (There was a loaded
+rifle in his left.)
+
+"Who offers indignity to a distinguished guest?" he demanded.
+
+The question was addressed to everybody in the room.  He took
+care they were all aware of it.  His stern eyes traveled from
+face to face.
+
+"My men, who escorted him here, are outside the door.  They can
+enter and escort him away, if there are none here who understand
+how to treat the stranger in our midst!"
+
+There was goose-flesh all over me, and I did not even try to look
+unembarrassed.  A man's wits, if he has any, work swiftly when he
+looks like being torn to pieces at a moment's notice.  It seemed
+to me that the less insolent I appeared, the less likely they
+were to vent their wrath on me.  I tried to look as if I didn't
+understand I was intruding--as if I expected a welcome.
+
+"Good!" Anazeh whispered in my ear.  "You do well."
+
+There was a murmur of remonstrance.  The sheikh who had dared to
+rebuke Anazeh found the resentment turned against himself.
+Somebody told him sharply to mend his manners.  Anazeh, shrewd
+old opportunist, promptly directed the servant to place cushions
+on the edge of the carpet, in front of the first row of those
+who wished to appear important.  That obliged the front rank
+to force the men behind them backward, closer to the wall, so
+that room could be made for us without our trespassing on the
+forbidden gangway.
+
+So I sat down in the front row, five cushions from Abdul Ali.
+Anazeh squatted beside me with his rifle across his knees.  Then
+Mahommed ben Hamza forced himself down between me and the man on
+my left, using his left elbow pretty generously and making the
+best of the edges of two cushions.  As far as I could see there
+were not more than half-a-dozen other men in the room who had
+rifles with them, although all had daggers, and some wore curved
+scimitars with gold-inlaid hilts.
+
+As soon as I could summon sufficient nerve to look about me and
+meet the brown, conjecturing eyes that did not seem to know
+whether to resent my presence or be simply curious, I caught the
+eye of Suliman ben Saoud in the front row opposite, ten or twelve
+cushions nearer the door than where I sat.  He did not seem to
+notice me.  The absence of eyebrows made his face expressionless.
+He didn't even vaguely resemble the Major James Grim whom I knew
+him to be.  When his eyes met mine there was no symptom of
+recognition.  If he felt as nervous as I did he certainly did not
+show it behind his mask of insolent indifference.
+
+There was still a good deal of muttered abuse being directed at
+Anazeh.  The atmosphere was electric.  It felt as if violence
+might break out any minute.  Abdul Ali seemed more nervous than
+any one else;  he rocked himself gently on his cushion, as if
+churning the milk of desire into the butter of wise words.
+Suddenly he turned to the sheikh on his left, a handsome man of
+middle age, who wore a scimitar tucked into a gold-embroidered
+sash, and whispered to him.
+
+Ben Hamza whispered to me:  "That sheikh to whom Abdul Ali speaks
+is Ali Shah al Khassib, the most powerful sheikh in these parts.
+A great prince.  A man with many followers."
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib called for prayer to bring the mejlis to
+order.  He was immensely dignified.  The few words he pronounced
+about asking God to bless the assembled notables with wisdom, in
+order that they might reach a right decision, would have been
+perfectly in place in the Capitol at Washington, or anywhere else
+where men foregather to decide on peace or war.
+
+At once a muballir* on his left opened a copy of the Koran on a
+cushion on his lap and began to read from it in a nasal singsong.
+There were various degrees of devoutness, and even of inattention
+shown by those who listened.  Some knelt and prostrated
+themselves.  Others, including Anazeh, sat bolt upright, closing
+their eyes dreamily at intervals.  Over the way, Jim Suliman ben
+Saoud Grim was especially formally devout.  His very life
+undoubtedly depended on being recognized as a fanatic of
+fanatics. [*A Moslem priest who recites prayers.]
+
+But there were three Christian sheikhs in the room.  One of them
+opposite me pulled out a Bible and laid it on the carpet as a
+sort of challenge to the Koran.  It was probably a dangerous
+thing to do, although most Moslems respect the Bible as a very
+sacred book.  The manner in which it was done suggested
+deliberate effort to provoke a quarrel.
+
+Mahommed ben Hamza, dividing his time like a schoolboy in chapel
+between staring about him and attending by fits and starts,
+nudged me in the ribs and whispered:
+
+"See that Christian!  He would not dare do that, only on this
+occasion they like to think that Moslems and Christians are
+agreeing together."
+
+The man who was reading to himself from the Bible looked up and
+caught my eye.  He tapped the book with his finger and nodded, as
+much as to ask why I did not join him.  At once I pulled my own
+from my pocket.  He smiled acknowledgment as I opened it at
+random.  Certainly he thought I did it to support his tactlessly
+ill-timed assertion of his own religion.  Very likely my action,
+since I was a guest and therefore not to be insulted, saved
+him from violence.  Incipient snarls of fanatical indignation
+died away.
+
+But as a matter of fact my eye was on Jim Suliman ben Saoud Grim.
+As the reading from the Koran came to an end amid a murmur of
+responses from all the sheikhs, the crooked-faced Ichwan sat
+upright.  In his sullen, indifferent way, he stared leisurely
+along the line until his eyes rested on me.
+
+As his eyes met mine I marked the place where the Bible was open
+with a pencil, and closed the book, suspecting that he might be
+glad to know where a pencil could be found in a contingency.
+
+He did not smile.  The expression of his face barely changed.
+Just for a second I thought I saw a flicker of amused approval
+pass over the corners of his eyes and mouth.
+
+So I left the book lying where it was with the pencil folded
+in it.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eight
+
+"He will say next that it was he who set the stars in the sky
+over El-Kerak, and makes the moon rise!"
+
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib was the first to speak.  He was heard to the
+end respectfully, none interrupting.  But it seemed obvious from
+their faces that not a few sheikhs were disposed to question both
+his leadership and most of what he said.  Mahommed ben Hamza kept
+up a running whisper of interpretation, breathing into my ear
+until it was wet with condensed breath.  I had to use a
+handkerchief repeatedly.
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib made no definite proposal.  He said that a
+man whom they all knew well had brought news to the effect that
+Emir Feisul was ready to make war on the French in order to drive
+them out of Syria.  That in a case like that, of Moslems against
+kafirs,* there could be no question on which side their hearts or
+their interests lay.  That several dependable men had brought
+word of great unrest in Palestine.  That in all likelihood the
+British would send their army to help the French, in which case
+the Arabs of Palestine were likely to rise in rebellion in the
+British army's rear.  That was the situation.  They were invited
+to consider it, and to decide what action, if any, seemed called
+for. [*Unbelievers.]
+
+He sat down without having risked his leadership by any statement
+of his own attitude.  He had simply reported facts that he
+believed to be true--facts that many of the notables plainly did
+not yet believe, or believed only in part.  There followed a
+perfect babel of argument, during which the servants passed the
+coffee and cakes around.  After that, during every interval
+between speeches there was more coffee and more cakes--wonderful
+cakes made with honey and almonds, immensely filling;  but the
+more full an Arab gets of stodgy food the more his tongue wags,
+until at last he talks himself to sleep.
+
+For ten minutes men were shouting their opinions to one another
+to and fro across the room.  From what I could make of it there
+was not a man who did not advocate putting the whole of Palestine
+to the sword forthwith.  But it was noticeable that when their
+turns came to stand up and address the mejlis their advocacy was
+considerably toned down.  Everybody seemed to want somebody else
+to father the proposal for a raid, although every man pretended
+to be anxious to take part in one.
+
+Old Anazeh on my right sat in grim silence, quizzing each talker
+in turn with puckered eyes.  The only comment he made was a sort
+of internal rumbling, suggestive of the preliminary notice of
+an earthquake.
+
+At the end of ten minutes Sheikh Ali Shah al Khassib brought
+proceedings a step forward by calling for confirmation of the
+news of unrest in Palestine.  Man after man got up, and, since he
+was speaking of others, not of himself, painted the discontent of
+the Palestinians in lurid terms.  Each man tried to outvie the
+other.  The first man said they were anxious regarding the
+Zionists and keen for a solution of the problem.  The second said
+they hated the Zionists, and could see no way out of their
+predicament but by rebellion.  The third said that no Arab in
+Palestine could eat for thinking of the Zionist outrage, and that
+the heart of every man in El-Kerak should bleed for his
+distressed brethren.
+
+To judge by what the fourth and fifth and sixth said, Palestine
+was in a state of scarcely suppressed rebellion, and every living
+Arab in the country was sharpening his sword in secret for the
+butchering of Zionists at the first opportunity.  The seventh man
+said that the Palestine Arabs had never under Turkish rule
+suffered and groaned as they did under the British, and that
+their cry was going up to heaven for relief from the ignominious
+tyranny of Zionist pretensions.
+
+Ali Shah al Khassib chose that ringing appeal as the cue for his
+next move in the game.  He called on Sheikh Abdul Ali, "as well
+known in Damascus as in this place," to address the mejlis.
+
+There was instant silence.  Even the coffee cups ceased rattling.
+Abdul Ali got to his feet with the manner of a man long used to
+swaying assemblies.  He had just the right air of authority;
+exactly the right suggestion of deference;  the quiet smile of
+the man with secrets up his sleeve;  and he paused just long
+enough before speaking to whet curiosity and fix attention.
+
+He did not speak floridly or fast, and he indulged in none of
+those flights of oratory that most Arabs love.  There was ample
+time between his sentences for Mahommed ben Hamza to translate
+into my wet and itching ear.  But every sentence of his speech
+had measured weight in it, and every word he used was chosen for
+its poison or its sting.
+
+He began by reminding them of the war and of Emir Feisul's share
+in it.  Of how they, and their fathers, and their sons had fought
+behind Feisul and helped to establish him in Damascus.  Then he
+spoke of the British promise that the Arabs' should have a
+kingdom of their own, with Damascus for its capital and borders
+to include all the peoples of Arab blood in the Near East.  He
+paused for a full minute after that.  Then:
+
+"But the French are in Syria.  The French, who also promised us
+an Arab kingdom.  They have assembled at the coast an army that
+already threatens Emir Feisul.  The British are in Palestine,
+where they are admitting a horde of Zionist Jews to displace us
+Arabs, rightful owners of the soil.  The British are also in
+Mesopotamia, which they have seized for themselves for the sake
+of the oil which Allah, in His wisdom, created beneath the
+fertile earth.  Feisul makes ready to defend Syria against the
+French.  But the British will march to the aid of the French.
+Can anybody tell me how much of that promise to us Arabs has been
+kept, by either nation, French or British?"
+
+So far he was on thoroughly safe ground.  A man who preached
+against the French could hardly be suspected of being hired by
+the French to do it.  There was nobody there but he who could say
+what Feisul's intentions actually were.  You can say what you
+like against the British anywhere, at any time, and find some one
+to believe what you say.  And it needed no wizardry to prove that
+the Allies had broken every promise they ever made to the Arabs.
+
+"Are you going to sit idle, and let Emir Feisul and the Syrians
+fight the French alone?" he asked, and paused again.
+
+There was a great deal of murmuring--not quite all of it, I
+thought, entirely in his favour.
+
+"What is the alternative to sitting still like camels waiting to
+be doubly burdened?  If you raid Palestine, the local Arabs will
+all rise to your assistance.  The throat of every Zionist from
+the Lebanon to Beersheba will be cut.  There will be plunder
+beyond reckoning.  And you will help Feisul by holding back the
+British army from marching to the assistance of the French.  The
+question is, are you men?--are you Arabs?--are you true Moslems?
+--or do you like to look down from these heights of El-Kerak over
+the home of your ancestors in the hands of so-called Zionists who
+are nothing but Jews, under a new name?"
+
+He sat down before any one could answer him, and whispered to Ali
+Shah al Khassib, who called on another man to speak at once.  It
+was a pretty obvious piece of concerted strategy, but he got by
+with it for the moment.  The general feeling seemed to be in
+favour of a raid if only some one would start it.  Nobody seemed
+to mind much how the decision was arrived at, so long as the
+responsibility was passed to some one else.
+
+The man now called on was a smooth-tongued, tall, lean individual
+with shifty eyes, and a flow of talk of the coffeeshop variety.
+At the end of his first sentence any fool would have known that
+he had been put up to quiz Abdul Ali, in order that Abdul Ali
+might have an excuse to justify himself.  He attacked him very
+mildly, with much careful hedging and apologetic gesture, on the
+ground that possibly the Damascene was ignoring their interests
+while urging them to take action that would suit his own.
+
+Even with that mild criticism he set loose quite a murmur of
+minority agreement.  For the first time since the speech-making
+began Anazeh barked approval.  I thought for a moment the old man
+was going to get to his feet.  But Abdul Ali was up again first,
+and launched on the seas of self-esteem.
+
+If I had not listened to equally childish political maneuvers in
+the States, and seen them succeed for the reason that people who
+want something want also to be fooled into getting it by special
+arguments, it would have seemed incredible that a man, who had
+recently boasted of statesmanship, should dare to make such a
+public ass of himself.  Yet, for fifteen minutes he carried the
+whole meeting with him, and the warmth of his self-satisfied
+emotion made him ooze resplendent sweat.
+
+"Now he speaks of you, effendi," Mahommed ben Hamza whispered;
+and in confirmation of it Anazeh clutched my arm, as if to keep
+the tide of eloquence from washing me away.
+
+Had the British done anything for the country this side of
+Jordan?  Anything for the people's education, for instance?  No!
+Instead, they had taken away the missionaries.  Better than
+nothing were those missionaries.  They had their faults.  They
+undermined religion.  But they taught.  And the British had
+called them in, giving some ridiculous excuse about danger.  It
+had remained then for him--Abdul Ali of Damascus and of El-Kerak
+--the same individual who was now urging them to strike for their
+own advantage--to take the first step for the establishment in
+El-Kerak of a school that should be independent of the British.
+He, Abdul Ali, greatly daring because he had the interest of El-
+Kerak at heart, had introduced that day into the mejlis a
+distinguished guest from the United States, whose sole desire--
+whose only object in life--whose altruistic and divine ambition
+was to establish an American secular school in El-Kerak!
+
+He sat down, glowing with super-virtue.  And then the fur flew.
+Anazeh was first on his feet.
+
+"Princes!" he shouted.  "That Damascene is a father of lies!  It
+was I, Anazeh, who brought this man hither!  That corrupter of
+honesty, who doles out other people's gold for bidden purposes,
+seeks to appear as your benefactor!"  (It was fairly obvious that
+Anazeh had not received any of the gold.)  "He will say next that
+it was he who set the stars in the sky over El-Kerak, and makes
+the moon rise!  He is a foreigner, a father of snakes, and a
+born liar!"
+
+Anazeh refused to sit down again, but stood with rifle on his
+arm, daring any one to challenge his statements.  Abdul Ali
+flushed angrily, but laughed aloud.  The next man on his feet was
+ben Nazir, my erstwhile host, who had repudiated me.  And he
+repudiated me all over again, accusing me of abusing his
+hospitality by going over to Abdul Ali, who had never even heard
+of me before I came to El-Kerak.
+
+There was no making head or tail of the storm of abuse and
+counter-abuse that followed, except that it did not look healthy
+for me.  There seemed to be four or five different factions, all
+of whom regarded me as the bone of contention.  Rather than
+betray anxiety I opened the Bible and began to make dots under
+letters, spelling out a message to Grim to the effect that I had
+no notion where to find lodgings for the night, and that if
+Anazeh elected to carry me off I should have to go with him.
+
+I did not know how to get the message to him without arousing
+suspicion and making matters worse than they were, and it seemed
+best not to call attention to the fact that I was writing.  So I
+made a few dots at a time, and looked about me.  I saw Abdul Ali,
+laughing cynically, make a gesture with his arm as if he
+consigned me to the dogs.  Then I caught Grim's eye--Suliman ben
+Saoud's.  He, too, was making capital of my predicament.
+
+He had got the attention of the men around him, and was pointing
+at the Bible while he reeled off a string of an angry rhetoric
+that sounded like a cat-fight.  He shouted at me, and made angry
+gestures;  but I knew that if he wanted me to understand his
+signals he would never make them openly, so I ignored them.
+
+"The sheikh from Arabia demands to see the book," said Mahommed
+ben Hamza in my ear.
+
+I passed it over the carpet with the pencil folded in it at the
+page I had begun to mark;  and the men opposite handed it along,
+with remarks they considered appropriate.  Jim Suliman ben Saoud
+Grim seized the book angrily, glared at it, denounced it, and
+wrote something on the fly-leaf.  He showed it to the men beside
+him, and they laughed, nodding approval.  He wrote again.  They
+approved again.  He turned and talked to them.  Then, as if he
+had an afterthought, he wrote a third time.  When they wanted to
+look at that he ran the pencil through it and wrote something
+else on the other side of the fly-leaf, at which they all
+laughed uproariously.  Presently he tossed the book back to me
+with all the outward signs of contempt that a fanatic can show
+for another religion.
+
+I have kept that Bible as a souvenir, with the verses from the
+Koran written on the flyleaf in Arabic in Grim's fine hand.
+Underneath them, in Greek characters with a pencil line scrawled
+through them, is the only sentence that interested me at the
+moment:
+
+"This looks good.  Keep Anazeh quiet and sober."
+
+Anazeh was beginning to hold forth again, shaking his fist
+at Abdul Ali and making the roof echo to his mighty bellowing.
+I tugged at the skirt of his cloak, and after a minute he
+sat down to discover what I wanted.  He seemed to think I
+needed reassurance.  He began to flood me with promises of
+protection.  It was about a minute before I could get a word
+in edgeways.  Then:
+
+"Jimgrim says," said I.
+
+"Jimgrim!  Is he here?"
+
+"He surely is."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"We have a sign. Jimgrim says, 'Be quiet, and drink no
+strong drink.'"
+
+He leaned across to Mahommed ben Hamza, doubting his ears and my
+Arabic.  I repeated the message, and ben Hamza translated.
+
+"I don't believe Jimgrim is here!" said Anazeh.  "I would know
+him among a million."
+
+"It is true," said ben Hamza, grinning from ear to ear, "for I
+myself know where he sits!"
+
+"Where then?" Anazeh demanded excitedly.
+
+"Don't you dare!" said I, and ben Hamza grinned again.
+
+"He is my friend.  I say nothing," he answered.
+
+Anazeh put in the next five minutes minutely examining every face
+within range, while the din of argument rose louder and more
+violent than ever, and suspicion of me seemed to be gaining.
+
+But suddenly Suliman ben Saoud got to his feet and there was
+silence.  They were all willing to listen to a member of the
+Ichwan sect, for the news of its power and political designs had
+spread wherever men talk Arabic.  He spoke gutturally in a
+dialect that ben Hamza did not find it any too easy to follow, so
+I only got the general gist of Grim's remarks.
+
+He said that he had much experience of raids and of making
+preparations for them.  A raid aimed at the Zionists--at this
+moment--might be good--perhaps.  They were better judges of that
+than he.  But it was all-important to know who was in favour of
+the raid, and exactly why.  The words men spoke were not nearly
+so impressive as the deeds they did.  Therefore, when the
+illustrious Sheikh Abdul Ali of Damascus urged a raid on the one
+hand, and boasted of provision for a school in El-Kerak on the
+other, it would be well to examine this foreign effendi,   whom
+Abdul Ali claimed to have introduced.  The claim was disputed,
+but the claim was not made for nothing.  In his judgment, based
+on vast experience of politics in Arabia, motives were seldom on
+the surface.  All depended on the motives of the illustrious
+Abdul Ali.  This stranger from America--he glared balefully at
+me--should be investigated thoroughly.  As a man of vast
+experience with the interests of El-Islam at heart, he offered
+respectfully to examine this stranger thoroughly with the aid of
+an interpreter.  He confessed to certain suspicions;  should they
+prove unfounded, then it might be reasonable to credit the rest
+of Abdul Ali's statements;  if not, no.  He was willing, if the
+honourable mejlis saw fit, to take the stranger aside and put
+many questions to him.
+
+When he had finished you could actually physically feel the
+suspicion directed at me.  It was like a cold wind.  Anazeh was
+just as conscious of it, and muttered something about its being
+time to go.  Abdul Ali got up and asked indignantly why the
+Ichwan from so far away should have such an important voice;  he
+himself stood there ready to answer all questions.  Suliman ben
+Saoud retorted sourly that he proposed to question the Damascene
+in public after privately interrogating me.
+
+"They shall not interfere with you!  You are in my charge,"
+Anazeh growled in my ear.  "I will summon my men at the
+first excuse."
+
+"Jimgrim says, 'Be quiet!'" I answered.
+
+There was another uproar.  Ali Shah al Khassib openly took the
+part of Abdul Ali.  A dozen men demanded to know how much he had
+been paid to do it.  Finally, Suliman ben Saoud beckoned me.  I
+got up, and with Mahommed ben Hamza at my heels I followed him to
+a narrow door in a side wall that opened on a stone stairway
+leading to the ramparts.  Anazeh' came too, growling like a
+hungry bear, and after a couple of blood-curdling threats hurled
+at Suliman ben Saoud's back he took up position in the open door,
+facing the crowd, and dared any one to try to follow.  He seemed
+to have confidence in Mahommed ben Hamza's ability to protect me,
+if necessary, on the roof.
+
+The roof and ramparts appeared deserted.  They were in the
+ruinous state to which the Turks reduce everything by sheer
+neglect, and in which Arabs, blaming the Turks, seemed quite
+disposed to leave things.  The Ichwan led the way to the
+southwest corner, peering about him to make sure no guards were
+in hiding, or asleep behind projecting buttresses.  Overhead the
+kites were wheeling against a pure blue sky.  The Dead Sea lay
+and smiled below us, with the gorgeous, treeless Judean Hills
+beyond.  Through the broken window of the hall came the clamour
+of arguing men.
+
+"O, Jimgrim!" grinned Mahommed ben Hamza when we reached
+the corner.
+
+Grim turned and faced us with folded arms, leaning his back
+against the parapet.
+
+Ben Hamza continued:  "You are a very prince of dare-devils!  One
+word from me--one little word, and they would fling you down into
+the moat for the vultures to feed on!"
+
+"I remember a time," Grim answered, "when a word from me saved
+you from hanging."
+
+"True, father of good fortune!  But a man must laugh.  I
+will hold my tongue in El-Kerak like a tomb that has not
+been plundered!"
+
+"You'd better!  You've work to do.  Where are your men?"
+
+"All where I can find them."
+
+"Good.  You'll get turned out of the mejlis presently.  Look down
+into the moat now."
+
+We all peered over.  The lower ramp of the wall sloped steeply,
+but all the way up the sharp southwest corner the stones were
+broken out, and a goat, or a very active man could find foothold.
+
+"Could you climb that?"
+
+"Surely.  Remember, Jimgrim, when I climbed the wall of El-Kudz
+(Jerusalem) to escape from the police!"
+
+"Bring your men into the moat between dark and moonrise.  Have a
+long rope with you--a good one.  You and two men climb up here
+and hide.  The remainder wait below.  Oh, yes;  and bring a wheat
+sack--a new, strong one.  You may have to wait for several hours.
+When you see me, take your cue from me;  but whatever happens, no
+murder!  You understand?  Nobody's to be killed."
+
+Ben Hamza grinned and nodded.  He seemed to be one of those good-
+natured rogues who ask nothing better than the sheer sport of
+lawless hero-worship.  He would have made a perfect chief of
+staff for any brigand, provided the brigand took lots of chances.
+
+"You'll be killed, if anybody finds you up here after dark!  You
+realize that?"
+
+"Trust me."
+
+Grim nodded.  He was good at trusting people, when he had to, and
+when the selection was his own.
+
+"Affairs seem to be drifting nicely," he said, turning to me.
+"It's best not to let Anazeh know who I am just yet, if that can
+be helped.  But if you must, when the time comes, you'll have to
+tell him.  Do keep him sober.  After the evening prayer there'll
+be a banquet;  if he gets drunk we're done for.  I'm going to
+make you out an awful leper, if you don't mind.  They may yell
+for your hide and feathers before I've finished, but Anazeh will
+protect you.  If he leaves the hall in a huff, don't make any
+bones about going with him.  Let him ride out of town and wait
+for me about two miles down the track, at the point where that
+tomb stands above a narrow pass between two big rocks.  Do you
+remember it?"
+
+"What if he won't wait?"
+
+"He must!  Tell him I'll have a prisoner with me;  then he'll be
+curious.  But you can bet on old Anazeh when he's sober.  But
+things may turn out so that it's simpler for you to stay and see
+this through with me.  In that case you must persuade him to go
+without you, after explaining to him just where he's to wait."
+
+"How shall I do that?" I said. "I haven't enough Arabic."
+
+"I'll write it," he answered.  "Give me that pencil."
+
+"Say something, too, then about his keeping sober."
+
+Grim nodded, and wrote quite a long letter in Arabic on a page of
+my notebook.
+
+"The next move," he said, as I pocketed the letter, "is for me to
+get Abdul Ali's goat:  I think--and I hope--he'll try to bribe
+me.  If he does, he's my meat!  The whole question of raid or no
+raid hangs on their confidence in him.  If I throw suspicion on
+him, and he disappears directly afterwards, they'll abandon the
+plan, confiscate his goods and chattels, and quarrel among
+themselves instead of raiding Palestine.  Get me?"
+
+"Um-n-yes.  I've sat on a horse I was warned against--felt
+safer--and gone to hospital at that."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"No hospitals up here!  It'll be soon over if they get wise to
+us.  But I think we're all right;  and you're almost certainly
+safe.  But don't be tempted to talk.  Well--we've been up here
+long enough for me to have put you through the third degree.
+Better look a bit uncomfortable as you go down, as if I'd got
+under your skin with some awkward questions.  You, too, ben
+Hamza;  don't grin;  look afraid."
+
+"I am not at all afraid, Jimgrim.  But I will try."
+
+Grim studied for a moment.
+
+"Don't forget," he added, "at the first suggestion that you're
+not wanted, make yourself scarce, and go and round up your men.
+If you're thrown out pretty roughly, keep your temper and run."
+
+"Taht il-amr!" (Yours to command.)
+
+"Come on, then.  Let's go."
+
+The sun was fairly low over the Judean Hills as we turned down
+the narrow stairs and found Anazeh waiting at the bottom.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Nine
+
+"Feet downwards, too afraid to yell!"--
+
+
+Abdul Ali of Damascus was holding the floor again when we
+returned.  He had abandoned the cold air of mysterious authority
+and secrets in reserve.  His claim to backstairs influence having
+been challenged, he had resorted to the emotional appeal that is
+the simplest means of controlling any crowd of men anywhere.  The
+demagog who can find a million men all responsive to the same
+emotion can swing them as easily as a hundred if he knows his
+business.  Loot was the tune he harped, with the old Ishmael
+blood-lust by way of obbligato.
+
+He had them by the heart-strings, and there were long-necked
+bottles of liquor that smelt of aniseed being passed from hand to
+hand.  We returned to our places almost unnoticed, and within the
+minute some one handed a full bottle to Anazeh;  the accompanying
+cup was big enough to hold any ordinary drunkard's breakfast, and
+the old sheikh's eyes admired the size of it.
+
+I laid my hand on the wrist that held the bottle.  He shook it
+off angrily, and began to pour.  Grim, over the way, looked
+anxious.  It was up to me to play this hand, so I led my ace
+of trumps.
+
+Suddenly, and very clumsily, I rocked sideways to reach my hip-
+pocket, contriving to jog his elbow and spill what was already in
+the cup.  He turned his head to curse savagely, and I showed him
+the folded sheet from my notebook.  His name was on it in Arabic:
+
+"Sheikh Anazeh ben Mahmoud, from Jimgrim."
+
+He seized it, setting the bottle down between his feet, where it
+was instantly reached for by some one else and handed down the
+line.  Reading was evidently not Anazeh's favorite amusement, but
+he knitted his brows over the letter and wrestled with it word by
+word, while Abdul Ali's fiery declamation made the vaulted roof
+resound.  I could only make out snatches of the appeal to
+savagery--a word and a sentence here and there.
+
+"Who are you, princes?  Men with swords, or slaves who must
+obey?--Raid over the Jordan twenty thousand strong!--What are
+Jews?  Shall Jews take the home of your ancestors?  Who says so?
+--Let the Jews be buried in the land they come to steal!--You say
+the Jews are cleverer than you.  Cut their heads off, then they
+cannot think!"
+
+"When did Jimgrim give you this?" Anazeh demanded, folding the
+letter and stowing it in his bosom.
+
+"That is the message that I told you would come later if
+you waited."
+
+"Do you know what is in the message?"
+
+"No."  That was perfectly true.  I had talked with Grim, but had
+not read what he had written.
+
+"He wishes me to go and wait for him in a certain place"
+
+"Why not do it?"
+
+"Rubbama." (Perhaps.)
+
+"True-believers!  Followers of the Prophet!  Sons of warrior
+kings!" thundered Abdul Ali.  "Will you do nothing to help
+Feisul, a lineal descendant of the Prophet?  You have helped him
+to a throne.  Now strike to hold him there!"
+
+"Jimgrim says, I may go away and leave you here," growled Anazeh.
+"What say you?"
+
+"Ala khatrak. (Please yourself.)  Jimgrim is wise."
+
+"He is the father of wisdom.  Mashallah!  I will consider it.
+There will be a banquet presently!"
+
+"And loot!  You can help yourselves!" shouted Abdul Ali of
+Damascus.  Then he sat down amid a storm of applause.  Suliman
+ben Saoud--Jimgrim--was on his feet before the tumult died away,
+and again they grew perfectly still to listen to him.  If an
+Arab loves anything under heaven more than his own style of
+fighting, it is the action and reaction of debate.  I could
+not understand a word of the mid-Arabian dialect, but Abdul
+Ali's retorts were plain enough;  and from the way that Grim
+pointed at me and Mahommed ben Hamza it was fairly easy to
+follow what was happening.
+
+He denounced me as possibly dangerous, and wondered why they
+permitted me to have an interpreter, who could whisper to me
+everything that was being said.
+
+"Put out the interpreter!" sneered Abdul Ali, and there was a
+chorus of approval.   Mahommed ben Hamza got up and hurried for
+the door while the hurrying was good and painless to himself,
+though it was hardly that to other people;  forcing his way
+between the close-packed notables he kicked more than one of them
+pretty badly and grinned when they cursed him.  I saw Abdul Ali
+of Damascus whisper to one of his rose-coloured parasites, who
+got up at once and made his way toward the door, too.
+
+"The fellow is from Hebron," Abdul Ali sneered in a voice loud
+enough for all to hear.  "It is best that he should not go back
+to Hebron to tell tales!  I have attended to it."
+
+My blood ran cold.  I tried to catch Grim's eye, but he would not
+look in my direction.  I wondered whether he had heard Abdul
+Ali's threat.  It seemed to me that if Mahommed ben Hamza were
+either murdered or imprisoned Grim's whole chance of success was
+gone.  The danger would be multiplied tenfold.  Anazeh seemed the
+only remaining hope.  The old-rose individual who followed ben
+Hamza had not reached the door yet.
+
+"How about your men?" I asked.
+
+"They are all right." Anazeh's eyes pursued the liquor bottle.
+
+"Why not go and see?" I suggested.
+
+"Ilhamdul'illah, they are good men.  I know them.  If there is
+trouble they will come and tell me."
+
+The door opened softly.  The gorgeous old-rose parasite slipped
+through.  I had a mental vision of Mahommed ben Hamza lying face-
+downward with his new coat stained with blood.  There was nothing
+for it, it seemed, but the magic formula to move Anazeh.
+
+"Jimgrim says, 'See that ben Hamza gets safely away!"'
+
+"Dog of a Hebron tanner's son--let him die!  What is that to me?"
+
+"It is Jimgrim's command."
+
+"Wallahi haida fasl! (By God, this is a strange affair!)  Wait
+here!"
+
+Old Anazeh, with the name of the Prophet of God on his lips, cast
+an envious glare at the bottle of liquor and seized action by the
+forelock.  There was nothing to excite comment in his getting up
+to leave the room.  A dozen men had done that and come in again.
+He strode out, straight down the middle of the carpet.  Suliman
+ben Saoud--Jimgrim--went on talking, and to judge by Abdul Ali of
+Damascus' increasingly restless retorts he was getting that
+gentleman's goat as promised.  Finally Abdul Ali got to his feet
+and said that if the Ichwan would see him alone he would show him
+certain documents that would satisfy him, but that it would not
+be policy to produce them in public.  He offered to send for the
+documents, and to show them during or after the banquet.
+
+So Jimgrim sat down, and there was a good deal of quiet nudging
+and nodding.  Every one seemed to understand that the Ichwan was
+going to be bribed;  they seemed to admire his ability to get for
+himself a share of the funds that most of them had tapped.
+
+A man nearly opposite me leaned over and said in fairly good
+French, with the manner of a doctor assuring his patient that the
+worst is yet to come:
+
+"It has been decided that you are to be detained here in the castle
+until there is no danger of your carrying away important news."
+
+While I was turning that over in my mind Anazeh came back,
+grinning.  Something outside had tickled him immensely, but he
+would not say anything.  He sat down beside me and chuckled into
+his beard;  and when his neighbour on the right asked what had
+amused him he turned the question into a bawdy joke.
+
+"Did ben Hamza get away?" I whispered.
+
+He only nodded.  He continued chuckling until the man on duty by
+the door announced to the "assembled lords and princes" that the
+muezzin summoned them to prayer.  All except three Christian
+sheikhs trooped up the narrow stairway in Ali Shah al Khassib's
+wake, Anazeh going last with a half-serious joke about not caring
+to be stabbed in the back.
+
+I expected the three non-Moslems would take advantage of the
+opportunity to ask me a string of questions.  But they took
+exactly the opposite view of the situation.  They avoided me,
+withdrawing into a corner by themselves.  I suppose they
+thought that to be seen talking to me was more risky than the
+amusement merited.
+
+So I went up to the ramparts, too, to watch the folk at prayer,
+minded to keep out of sight, for they don't like being regarded
+as a curious spectacle;  and on the way up I did something that
+may have had a lot to do with our getting away alive, although I
+did not give much thought to it and could hardly have explained
+my motive at the time.
+
+The door at the foot of the stairs opened inward.  It was almost
+exactly the same width as the stairway, so that when it stood
+wide open you could not have put your hand between its edge and
+the stairway wall.  Lying on the floor of the hall within a few
+feet of the nearest corner was a length of good sound olive-wood,
+about three inches in thickness, roughly squared and not
+particularly squared.  Having stepped on it accidentally, I
+picked it up, and discovered more by accident than intention that
+it was longer than the width of the stairway.  Then I noticed a
+notch in the stairway wall.  Behind the opened door there was a
+deeper notch in the opposite wall.  There was no lock on the
+door, no bolt.  That length of wood had been cut to fit
+horizontally from notch to notch across the passage.  Once that
+beam was fitted in its place, whoever wished to reach the roof
+would have to burn or batter down the door.  I moved the door and
+placed the length of olive-wood on end behind it.
+
+I found the view from the ramparts much more interesting than the
+soul-saving formalities of eighty or so potential cut-throats.
+While they prayed I stood watching the shadows deepen in the
+Jordan Valley, as no doubt Joshua once watched them from
+somewhere near that same spot before he marshalled his invading
+host.  You could understand why people who had wandered forty
+years in a stark and howling wilderness should yearn for those
+coloured, fertile acres between the Jordan and the sea:  why they
+should be willing to fight for them, die for them, do anything
+rather than turn back.
+
+By the time we had filed down--Anazeh last again--the servants
+had nearly finished spreading a banquet.  What looked like bed-
+sheets had been laid along the strip of carpet, and, the whole
+length of them was piled with all imaginable things to eat, from
+cakes and fruit to whole sheep roasted and seethed in camel's
+milk and honey.  There were no less than six sheep placed at
+intervals along the "table," with mountains of rice, scow-loads
+of apricots cooked in various ways, and a good sized flock of
+chickens spitted and smeared with peppery sauce.  At a guess, I
+should say there were several pounds of meat, about two chickens,
+and a peck of rice per man, with apricots and raisins added;  but
+they faced the prospect like heroes.
+
+Perhaps what helped them face it was the sight of sundry bottles
+bearing labels more familiar in the West.  Abdul Ali of Damascus,
+licking his lips like a cat that smells canary, took his place on
+a cushion up near the window again on the right of Ali Shah al
+Khassib, who was only the nominal host.  Abdul Ali left no doubt
+in anybody's mind as to who was paying for the feast.  It was he
+who gave orders to the servants in a bullying tone of voice;  he
+who begged every one be seated.
+
+Anazeh looked at the bottles of brandy--looked at me--and prayed
+under his breath;  or, at any rate, it looked and sounded like a
+prayer.  He may have been swearing.  He and I were not very far
+from the door;  the seats near the head of the table had all been
+taken.  I sat down at once, so as not to be conspicuous, but
+Anazeh remained standing so long that at last Abdul Ali called to
+him to sit down and eat his fill, using the offensively
+magnanimous tone of voice that some men can achieve without an
+effort.  I think Anazeh had been waiting for just that opening.
+
+"I have twenty men outside," he announced.  "Shall I eat, and
+not they?"
+
+"This is a feast for notables," said Abdul Ali.
+
+"A little bread with my own men is better than meat and drink at
+a traitor's table," Anazeh answered. "Wallahi! (By God!)  I go to
+eat with honest men!"  He laid a hand on my head.  "Ye have said
+this effendi must stay in the castle.  Well and good.  Whoever
+harms him or offers him indignity shall answer to me and my men
+for it!"  He bowed to me like a king taking leave of his court.
+"Lailtak sa'idi.  Allah yifazak, effendi!" (Good night. God keep
+you, effendi!)  With that he stalked out, and the door slammed
+shut behind him.  Everybody, including Abdul Ali, laughed.
+
+The banquet was a boresome business--an interminable competition
+to see who could eat and drink the most.  With my interpreter
+gone, and everybody else too busy guzzling to trouble to speak
+distinctly for my benefit, I had to depend on my ayes for
+information and naturally used them to the utmost.  I noticed
+that Abdul All of Damascus, Jimgrim Suliman ben Saoud and myself
+were the only men in the room, servants included, who ate and
+drank within the bounds of decency and reason.  One of the
+servants, walking up and down the table-cloth with brandy and
+relays of vegetables, was drunk very early in the game and had to
+be thrown out.
+
+Abdul Ali kept conversation going on the subject of the raid.
+The more the brandy bottles circulated the easier he found it to
+keep enthusiasm burning.  He talked about me, too, several times,
+and every time that subject cropped up all eyes turned in my
+direction.  I think he was making the most of the school idea,
+mixing up the raid with education and serving the mixture hot, as
+it were, with brandy sauce.
+
+But over the way, about half-way down the table, the Ichwan
+Suliman ben Saoud, dead-cold-sober and abstemious, as befitted a
+fanatic, was talking, too.  He was quite evidently talking
+against Abdul Ali, so that the Damascene kept looking at him with
+a troubled expression.  He glanced frequently at the door, too,
+as if he expected some one who could put an end to Suliman ben
+Saoud's intrigue.
+
+But it was a long time before the door opened and the second of
+his old-rose parasites came in.  I had not noticed until then
+that the man was missing.  He thrust a packet of some sort into
+Abdul Ali's hands.  He whispered.  The Damascene's face darkened
+instantly, and he swore like a pirate.  Then, I suppose because
+he had to vent his wrath on somebody, he shouted to me in German
+all down the length of the table:
+
+"Your cursed interpreter has nearly killed my secretary!  He
+struck him in the mouth and knocked all his teeth out.  What
+courteous servants you employ!"
+
+"What was your secretary trying to do to him?" I retorted, but he
+saw fit not to answer that.  He poured some more brandy instead
+for Ali Shah al Khassib.
+
+So that was what Anazeh had been laughing at!  The old humourist
+had either seen the fracas, or had come on the injured old-rose
+messenger of death nursing a damaged face.  I began to share
+Grim's good opinion of ben Hamza.  But though I watched Grim's
+face, and knew that he knew German, I could not detect a trace of
+interest.  He kept on talking against Abdul Ali until after ten
+o'clock.  By that time most of the notables were about as full as
+they could hold.  Those who were not too drunk appeared ready for
+anything in or out of reason.
+
+At that stage of the proceedings they ushered in the dancing
+girls.  The servants cleared away most of the food, removed the
+table-cloths, and a ring was formed practically all around the
+room, the notables leaning their backs against the wall to ease
+overworked bellies.  I set my cushion down next to a very drunken
+man just by the narrow door that opened on the stairway leading
+to the ramparts.  He fell asleep with his head on my shoulder
+within five minutes, and as that, for some subtle reason, seemed
+to make me even more unnoticeable I let him snore away in peace.
+
+Over in Abdul Ali's corner of the room there was a real council
+of war going on in whispers.  Opposite to him, ten paces or so
+distant from me, Jimgrim Suliman ben Saoud was holding a rival
+show.  It seemed about an even bet which was making greater
+headway.  Those who were more or less drunk, and all the younger
+sheikhs had eyes and ears for nothing but the dancing girls.
+
+They were outrageous hussies.  They wore more clothes than a
+Broadway chorus lady, and rather less paint, but if they were
+symbols of the Moslem paradise (as a learned Arab once assured me
+that they are meant to be) then, as I answered the Arab on that
+occasion, "me for hell."  But none of those sheikhs had ever seen
+Broadway, so you could hardly blame them.
+
+Abdul Ali of Damascus seemed to have his arrangements with the
+men in his corner cinched at last to his satisfaction.  He walked
+a little unsteadily across the room, apparently to make his peace
+with Suliman ben Saoud.  He held brazenly in one hand a leather
+wallet that bulged with paper money--doubtless the "documents"
+that he had sent for.  He nodded to me as he passed with
+more familiarity than he had any right to, since he had so
+ostentatiously dismissed me to the dogs.  I suppose he felt so
+sure of "convincing" Suliman ben Saoud, and was so bent on
+offsetting the reaction caused by Anazeh's behavior that he had
+been reviving that project about the school and therefore chose
+to appear on intimate terms with me.  I met him more than
+half-way;  any one who cared to might believe I loved him like
+a brother.
+
+He stood in front of Suliman ben Saoud, rocking just a trifle
+from the effects of alcohol and smoke,  and there was about five
+minutes' conversation of which, although I missed a lot of it, I
+caught the general drift.  The men who had come under the
+Ichwan's influence kept joining in and raising objections.  I
+gathered that they expected a proportionate percentage of the
+bribe for which Suliman ben Saoud was supposed to be maneuvering.
+
+But even Abdul Ali, with a pouch of paper money in his hand, was
+not quite so barefaced as to bribe the Ichwan publicly.  At the
+end of five minutes he suggested a private talk on the parapet.
+Suliman ben Saoud rose with apparent reluctance.  Abdul Ali of
+Damascus took his arm.  It was Suliman ben Saoud who opened the
+narrow door, and Abdul Ali who went through first.  I did not
+wait for any invitation, but let my snoring neighbor fall on his
+side, hurried through after them, and closed the door behind me.
+Groping for the stick in the dark, I jammed it into the notches.
+It fitted perfectly.  It held the door immovable and barred
+that stairway against all-comers.  Then I followed them to
+the parapet.
+
+The moon was about full and bathing the whole roof, and all the
+countryside in liquid light.  There was a certain amount of mist
+lower down, and you could only make out the Dead Sea through it
+here and there;  but up where we were, and even in the moat
+eighty feet below us, it was almost like daylight without the
+glare and heat.  I leaned over, but could see nobody in the moat,
+and there was no sign of Mahommed ben Hamza.
+
+Abdul Ali led the way toward the corner where Grim had given his
+orders to ben Hamza that afternoon.  Abdul Ali did not seem to
+realize that I was following.  When he turned at last, with his
+back to the parapet and the moonlight full in his face, he
+demanded in German:
+
+"Wass machen Sie hier?"
+
+I was about to answer him when there came a noise like
+subterranean thunder from the mouth of the stairway.  They were
+trying to force that door below and follow us.  The first words I
+used were in English, for Grim's benefit:
+
+"I stuck a stick in the door.  I should say it's good for ten or
+fifteen minutes unless they use explosives."
+
+That gave the whole game away at once.
+
+"So!" said Abdul Ali.  He thrust the wallet into his bosom.  With
+the other hand he pulled out a repeating pistol.  "So!"
+
+Grim said never a word.  He closed with him.  In a second we were
+all three struggling like madmen.  The pistol was not cocked;  I
+managed to get hold of Abdul Ali's wrist and wrench the weapon
+away before he could pull back the slide.  Then we all three went
+down together on the stone roof, Abdul Ali yelling like a maniac,
+and Grim trying to squeeze the wind out of him.  Even then, as we
+rolled and fought, I could still hear the thundering on the door.
+No doubt the noise they made prevented them from hearing Abdul
+Ali's yells for help.
+
+The man's strength was prodigious, although he was puffy and
+short-winded.  It began to look as if we would have to knock him
+on the head to get control of him.  But even so, there was no
+rope--no sign of Mahommed ben Hamza and his men.  You can think
+of a lot of things while you fight for your life eighty miles
+away from help.  I wondered whether Grim would throw him over the
+parapet, and whether we two would have to take our chance of
+mountaineering down that ragged corner of the wall.
+
+But suddenly about a hundred and eighty pounds of human brawn
+landed feet-first on my back.  A voice said "Taib,* Jimgrim!" and
+two other men jumped after him from somewhere on the ruined wall
+above us.  In another second Abdul Ali was held hand and foot,
+tied until he could not move, and then a wheat-sack was pulled
+down over his head and made fast between his legs. [*All right.]
+
+"You're late!" said Grim.  "Quick!  Where's the rope?  Are your
+men below?"
+
+The thundering on the door had ceased.  Either they were coming
+up the steps already, or had gone to reach the parapet some other
+way.  It did not occur to me, or for that matter to any of us in
+the excitement of the minute, that they might be holding a
+consultation below, or might even have abandoned the idea of
+following, although I think now that must be the explanation, for
+what we did took more time than it takes to set it down.
+
+Ben Hamza made one end of the rope fast around Abdul Ali's feet.
+He would not listen to argument.  He said he knew his business,
+and certainly the knot was workmanlike.  Then he called over the
+parapet (an Arab never whistles) and a voice answered from the
+southern side of the moat, where some fallen stones cast a
+shadow.  Then the three of them lifted Abdul Ali over, and
+lowered him head-first.
+
+It was a slow business, for otherwise he would have been stunned
+against the first projection.  I thought that Grim looked almost
+as nervous as I felt, but Mahommed ben Hamza was having the time
+of his life, and could not keep his tongue still.
+
+"Head upwards a man can yell," he explained to me, grinning from
+ear to ear.  "Feet upwards, too afraid to yell!"  Then the
+thundering on the door began again, louder than before it seemed
+to me.  They were using a battering-ram.  But they were too late.
+After what seemed like a long-drawn hour we saw shadowy arms
+below reach up and seize our prisoner.  Then the loose rope came
+up again hand over hand.
+
+"You next!" said Grim quietly.  He pushed me forward, after
+carefully examining the loop Mahommed ben Hamza tied in the end
+of the rope.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Ten
+
+"Money doesn't weigh much!"
+
+
+Well--you don't stand on precedence or ceremony at times like
+that.  Over I went in the bight of the rope.  They let me fall
+about fifteen feet before they seemed to realize that I had let
+go of the parapet.  Added to all that had gone before, that made
+about the climax of sensation.  The pain of barking the skin of
+knees and elbows against projecting angles of stone was a relief.
+
+I am no man of iron.  I haven't iron nerves.  Not one second of
+that descent was less than hell.  I could hear the thunder of
+some kind of battering-ram on the door at the foot of the stair.
+I could imagine the rope chafing against the sharp edge of the
+parapet as they paid it out hand over hand.  The only thing that
+made me keep my head at all was knowledge that Abdul Ali had had
+to do the trip feet-upward, with his head in a bag.  When they
+let go too fast it was rather like the half-way stage of taking
+chloroform.  When they slowed up, there was the agonizing dread
+of pursuit.  And through it all there burned the torturing
+suggestion that the rope might break.
+
+Mother Earth felt good that night, when strong hands reached up
+and lifted me out of the noose that failed of reaching the bottom
+by about a man's height.  Come to think of it, it wasn't mother
+earth at that.  It was the stinking carcass of a camel only half
+autopsied by the vultures, that my feet first rested on--brother,
+perhaps, to the beast I had put out of his agony that afternoon.
+
+The others came down the rope hand-over-hand, Grim last.  I
+suppose he stayed up there with his pistol, ready for contingencies.
+He had his nerve with him, for he had fastened the upper end of
+the rope to a piece of broken stone laid across a gap that the
+crusaders had made in the ramparts, centuries ago, for the Christian
+purpose of pouring boiling oil and water on their foes.  It did not
+take more than a minute's violent shaking after he got down to bring
+the rope tumbling on our heads.
+
+Then the next thing he did was to take a look at the prisoner.
+Finding him not much the worse for wear, barring some bruises and
+a missing inch or two of skin, he ordered the bag pulled over his
+head again and gave the order for retreat.  Mahommed ben Hamza
+went scouting ahead.  The others picked up Abdul Ali as the
+construction gangs handle baulks of timber--horizontal--face-
+downward.  When he wriggled they cuffed him into good behaviour.
+
+You have to get down into an Arab moat before you can realize
+what the Hebrews meant by their word Gehenna.  The smell of
+rotting carrion was only part of it.  One stumbled into, and
+through, and over things that should not be.  Heaps, that looked
+solid in the moonlight, yielded to the tread.  Whatever liquid
+lay there was the product of corruption.
+
+Yet we did not dare to climb out of the moat until we reached the
+shadows at the northern angle.  Though the moonlight shone almost
+straight down on us it was a great deal brighter up above, and
+the walls cast some shadow.  There was nothing for it but to pick
+our way in the comparative gloom of that vulture's paradise,
+praying we might find a stream to wade in presently.
+
+Once, looking up behind me, I thought I saw men's heads peering
+over the parapet, but that may have been imagination.  Grim vowed
+he did not see them, although I suspected him of saying that to
+avoid a panic.  He shepherded us along, speaking in a perfectly
+normal voice whenever he had to, as if there were no such thing
+as hurry in the world.  When we reached the farther corner of the
+moat it was he who climbed out first to con the situation.  A
+look-out in a bastion on the ruined town wall promptly fired
+at him.
+
+I expected him to fire back.  I climbed up beside him to lend a
+hand with the pistol I had filched from Abdul Ali.  But Grim
+shouted something about taking away for burial the corpse of a
+man who had died of small-pox.  The man on the wall commanded us
+to Allah's mercy and warned us to beware lest we, too, catch that
+dreaded plague.
+
+"Inshallah!" Grim answered.  Then he summoned our men from
+the moat.
+
+They passed up Abdul Ali, dragging him feet-first again with one
+man keeping a clenched fist ready to strike him in the mouth in
+case he should forget that corpses don't cry out.  He looked like
+a corpse half-cold, as they carried him jerkily along a track
+that roughly followed the line of the wall.  I don't suppose that
+anything ever looked more like an Arab funeral procession than we
+did.  The absence of noisy mourners, and the unusual hour of
+night, were plausibly accounted for by the dreaded disease that
+Grim had invented for the occasion.  My golf-suit was the only
+false note, but I kept in shadow as much as I could, with the
+unseemly burden between me and the ramparts.
+
+It was a long time before we had the town wall at our backs.  A
+funeral, in the circumstances, might justifiably be rapid;  but
+we could hardly run and keep up the pretense.  But at last we
+passed over the shoulder of a hill into shadow on the farther
+side, and there was no more need of play-acting.
+
+"Yalla bilagel!" [Run like the devil.] Grim ordered then, and we
+obeyed him like sprinters attempting to lower a record.
+
+Twelve men running through the night can make a lot of noise,
+especially when they carry a heavy man between them.  Our men
+were all from Hebron.  Hebron prides itself on training the
+artfullest thieves in Asia.  They boast of being able to steal
+the bed from under a sleeper without waking him.  But even the
+stealthiest animals go crashing away from danger, and, now that
+the worst of the danger lay behind, more or less panic seized all
+of us.
+
+Mahommed ben Hamza refused to follow the regular track, for fear
+of ambush or a chance encounter in the dark.  Grim let him have
+his way.  They dragged the wretched Abdul Ali like a sack of corn
+by a winding detour, and wherever the narrow path turned sharply
+to avoid great rocks they skidded him at the turn until he yelled
+for mercy.  Grim pulled off the sack at last, untied his arms and
+legs, and let him walk;  but whenever he lagged they frog-marched
+him again.
+
+At last we reached a brook where we all waded to get rid of the
+filth and smell from that infernal moat, and Abdul Ali seized
+that opportunity to play his last cards.  Considering Ben Hamza's
+reputation, the obvious type of his nine ruffians, the darkness
+and rough handling, it said a lot for Grim's authority that Abdul
+Ali still had that wallet-full of money in his possession.
+Sitting on a stone in the moonlight, he pulled it out.  His nerve
+was a politician's, cynical, simple.  Its simplicity almost took
+your breath away.
+
+"How many men from Hebron?" he demanded.
+
+"Ten.  Well and good.  I have here ten thousand piastres--one
+thousand for each of you, or divide it how you like.  That is
+the price I will pay you to let me go.  What can these other
+two do to you?  Take the money and run.  Leave me to settle with
+these others."
+
+Ben Hamza, knee-deep in the brook, laughed aloud as he eyed the
+money.  He made a gesture so good-humoured, so full of
+resignation and regret and broad philosophy that you would have
+liked the fellow even if he hadn't saved your life.
+
+"Deal with those two first!" he grinned.  "I would have taken
+your money long ago, but that I know Jimgrim!  He would have made
+me give it up again."
+
+"Jimgrim!" said Abdul Ali.  "Jimgrim?  Are you Major James Grim?
+A good thing for you I did not know that, when I had you in my
+power in the castle!"
+
+Grim laughed.  "Are we all set? Let's go."
+
+We hurried all the faster now because our legs were wet.  The
+night air on those Moab heights is chilly at any season.
+Perhaps, too, we were trying to leave behind us the moat-stench
+that the water had merely reduced, not washed away.  A quarter of
+a mile before we reached the place appointed we knew that Anazeh
+had not failed to keep his tryst.  Away up above us, beside the
+tomb, like an ancient bearded ghost, Anazeh stood motionless,
+silent, conning the track we should come by--a grand old savage
+keeping faith against his neighbours for the sake of friendship.
+
+He did not challenge when he heard us.  He took aim.  He held his
+aim until Grim called to him.  When our goat track joined the
+main road he was there awaiting us, standing like a sentinel in
+the shadow of a fanged rock.  And there, if, Abdul Ali of
+Damascus could have had his way, there would have been a fresh
+debate.  He did not let ten seconds pass before he had offered
+Anazeh all the money he had with him to lend him a horse and let
+him go.  Anazeh waived aside the offer.
+
+"You shall have as much more money as you wish!" the Damascene
+insisted.  "Let me get to my house, and a messenger shall take
+the money to you.  Or come and get it."
+
+All the answer Anazeh gave him was a curt laugh--one bark like
+a Fox's.
+
+"Where are all the horses?" Grim demanded.  I could only see five
+of six.
+
+"I wait for them."
+
+"Man, we can't wait!"
+
+"Jimgrim!" said the old sheikh, with a glint of something between
+malice and amusement in his eyes, "I knew you in the mejlis when
+you watched me read that letter!  One word from me and--"  He
+made a click between his teeth suggestive of swift death.  "I let
+you play your game.  But now I play my game, Allah willing.  I
+have waited for you.  Wait thou for me!"
+
+"Why?  What is it?"
+
+Anazeh beckoned us and turned away.  We followed him, Grim and I,
+across the road and up a steep track to the tomb on the
+overhanging rock, where he had stood when we first saw him.
+
+He pointed.  A cherry-red fire with golden sparks and crimson-
+bellied sulphur smoke was blazing in the midst of El-Kerak.
+
+"The home of Abdul Ali of Damascus," said Anazeh with pride in
+his voice.  It was the pride of a man who shows off the behaviour
+of his children.  "My men did it!"
+
+"How can they escape?" Grim asked him.
+
+"Wallah!  Will the gate guards stand idle?  Will they not run to
+the fire--and to the looting?  But they will find not much loot.
+My men already have it!"
+
+"Loot," said Grim, "will delay them."
+
+"Money doesn't weigh much," Anazeh answered.  "Here my men come."
+
+Somebody was coming.  There came a burst of shooting and yelling
+from somewhere between us and El-Kerak, and a moment later the
+thunder of horses galloping full-pelt.  Anazeh got down to the
+road with the agility of a youngster, ordered Abdul Ali of
+Damascus, the shivering Ahmed and me under cover.  He placed his
+remaining handful of men at points of vantage where they could
+cover the retreat of the fifteen.  And it was well he did.
+
+There were at least two score in hot pursuit, and though you
+could hardly tell which was which in that dim light, Anazeh's
+party opened fire on the pursuers and let the fifteen through.  I
+did not get sight of Grim while that excitement lasted, but he
+had two automatics.  He took from me the one that I had taken
+from Abdul Ali, and with that one and his own he made a din
+like a machine-gun.  He told me afterward that he had fired in
+the air.
+
+"Noise is as good as knock-outs in the dark," he explained, while
+Anazeh's men boasted to one another of the straight shooting that
+it may be they really believed they had done.  An Arab can
+believe anything--afterward.  I don't believe one man was killed,
+though several were hit.
+
+At any rate, whether the noise accomplished it or not, the
+pursuers drew off, and we went forward, carrying a cashbox now,
+of which Abdul Ali was politely requested to produce the key.
+That was the first intimation he had that his house had been
+looted.  He threw his bunch of keys away into the shadows, in the
+first exhibition of real weakness he had shown that night.  It
+was a silly gesture.  It only angered his captors.  It saved him
+nothing.
+
+Four more of Anazeh's men had been wounded, all from behind, two
+of them rather badly, making six in all who were now unfit for
+further action.  But we did not wait to bandage them.  They
+affected to make light of their injuries, saying they would go
+over to the British and get attended to in hospital.  Abdul Ali
+was put on Ahmed's miserable mount, with his legs lashed under
+the horse's belly.  Ahmed, with Mahommed ben Hamza and his men
+were sent along ahead;  being unarmed, unmounted, they were a
+liability now.  But those Hebron thieves could talk like an
+army;  they put up a prodigious bleat, all night long, about
+that cash-box.  They maintained they had a clear right to share
+its contents, since unless they had first captured Abdul Ali,
+Anazeh's men could not have burned his house and seized
+his money.  Anazeh's men, when they had time to be, were
+suitably amused.
+
+It was not a peaceful retreat by any means.  Time and again
+before morning we were fired on from the rear.  Our party
+deployed to right and left to answer--always boasting afterward
+of having killed at least a dozen men.  I added up their figures
+on the fly-leaf of the pocket Bible, and the total came to two
+hundred and eighteen of the enemy shot dead and forever damned!
+I believe Anazeh actually did kill one of our pursuers.
+
+By the time the moon disappeared we had come too close to
+Anazeh's country to make pursuit particularly safe.  Who they
+were who pursued us, hauled off.  We reached the launch, secure
+in its cove between the rocks, a few minutes after dawn.  Anazeh
+ordered his six wounded men into it, with perfect assurance
+that the British doctors would take care of them and let them
+go unquestioned.
+
+When Grim had finished talking with Anazeh I went up to thank the
+old fellow for my escort, and he acknowledged the courtesy with a
+bow that would have graced the court of Solomon.
+
+"Give the old bird a present, if you've got one," Grim whispered.
+
+So I gave him my watch and chain, and he accepted them with the
+same calm dignity.
+
+"Now he's your friend for life!" said Grim.  "Anazeh is a friend
+worth having.  Let's go!"
+
+The watch and chain was a cheap enough price to pay for that two
+days' entertainment and the acquaintance of such a splendid old
+king of thieves.  Anazeh watched us away until we were out of
+earshot, he and Grim exchanging the interminable Arab farewell
+formula of blessing and reply that have been in use unchanged for
+a thousand years.
+
+Then Abdul Ali produced his wallet again.
+
+"Major Grim," he said, "please take this money.  Keep it for
+yourself, and let me go.  Surely I have been punished enough!
+Besides, you cannot--you dare not imprison me!  I am a French
+subject.  I have been seized outside the British sphere.  I know
+you are a poor man--the pay of a British officer is a matter of
+common knowledge.  Come now, you have done what you came to do.
+You have destroyed my influence at El-Kerak.  Now benefit
+yourself.  Avoid an international complication.  Show mercy on
+me!  Take this money.  Say that I gave you the slip in the dark!"
+
+Grim smiled.  He looked extremely comical without any eyebrows.
+The wrinkles went all the way up to the roots of his hair.
+
+"I'm incorruptible," he said.  "The boss, I believe, isn't."
+
+"You mean your High Commissioner?  I have not enough money
+for him."
+
+Grim laughed.  "No," he said, "he comes expensive."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"Don't be an ass," said Grim. "You know what."
+
+"Information?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What information?"
+
+"You were sent by the French," said Grim, "to raise the devil
+here in Palestine--no matter why.  You were trying to bring
+off a raid on Judaea.  Who are your friends in Jerusalem who
+were ready to spring surprises?  What surprises?  Who's your
+Jerusalem agent?"
+
+"If I tell you?"
+
+"I'm not the boss.  But I'll see him about it.  Come on--who's
+your agent?"
+
+"Scharnhoff."
+
+Grim whistled.  That he did not believe, I was almost certain,
+but he whistled as if totally new trains of thought had suddenly
+revealed themselves amid a maze of memories.
+
+"You shall speak to the boss," he said after a while.
+
+I fell asleep then, wedged uncomfortably between two men's legs,
+wakened at intervals by the noisy pleading of Mahommed ben Hamza
+and his men for what they called their rights in the matter of
+Abdul Ali's wallet.  They were still arguing the point when we
+ran on the beach near Jericho, where a patrol of incredulous
+Sikhs pounced on us and wanted to arrest Ahmed and Anazeh's
+wounded men.  Grim had an awful time convincing them that he was
+a British officer.  In the end we only settled it by tramping
+about four miles to a guard-house, where a captain in uniform
+gave us breakfast and telephoned for a commisariat lorry.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when we reached Jerusalem and got
+the wounded into hospital.  By the time Grim had changed into
+uniform and put courtplaster where his eyebrows should have been,
+and he, Abdul Ali and I had driven in an official Ford up the
+Mount of Olives to OETA, the sun was not far over the skyline.
+
+Grim had telephoned, so the Administrator was waiting for us.
+Grim went straight in.  It was twenty minutes before we two were
+summoned into his private room, where he sat behind the desk
+exactly as we had left him the other morning.  He looked as if he
+had not moved meanwhile.  Everything was exactly in its place--
+even the vase, covering the white spot on the varnish.  There was
+the same arrangement of too many flowers, in a vase too small to
+hold them.
+
+"Allow me to present Sheikh Abdul Ali of Damascus," said Grim.
+
+The Administrator bowed rather elaborately, perhaps to hide
+the twinkle in his eyes.  He didn't scowl.  He didn't look
+tyrannical.  So Abdul Ali opened on him, with all bow guns.
+
+"I protest!  I am a French subject.  I have been submitted to
+violence, outrage, indignity!  I have been seized on foreign
+soil, and brought here by force against all international
+law!  I shall claim exemplary damages!  I demand apology
+and satisfaction!"
+
+Sir Louis raised his eyebrows and looked straight at Grim without
+even cracking a smile.
+
+"Is this true, Major Grim?"
+
+"Afraid it is, sir."
+
+"Scandalous!  Perfectly scandalous!  And were you a witness to
+all this?" he asked, looking at me as if I might well be the
+cause of it all.
+
+I admitted having seen the greater part of it.
+
+"And you didn't protest?  What's the world coming to?  I see
+you've lost a little skin yourself.  I hope you've not been
+breaking bounds and fighting?"
+
+"He is a most impertinent man!" said Abdul Ali, trying to take
+his cue, and glowering at me.  "He posed as a person interested
+in a school for El-Kerak, and afterward helped capture me by
+a trick!"
+
+The Administrator frowned.  It seemed I was going to be made the
+scape-goat.  I did not care.  I would not have taken a year of
+Sir Louis' pay for those two days and nights.  When he spoke
+again I expected something drastic addressed to me, but I
+was wrong.
+
+"An official apology is due to you, Sheikh Abdul Ali.  Permit me
+to offer it, together with my profound regret for any slight
+personal inconvenience to which you may have been subjected in
+course of this--ah--entirely unauthorized piece of--ah--
+brigandage.  I notice you have been bruised, too.  You shall have
+the best medical attention at our disposal."
+
+"That is not enough!" sneered Abdul Ali, throwing quite
+an attitude.
+
+"I know it isn't.  I was coming to that.  An apology is also due
+to the French--our friends the French.  I shall put it in
+writing, and ask you to convey it to Beirut to the French High
+Commissioner, with my compliments.  I would send you by train,
+but you might be--ah--delayed at Damascus in that case.  Perhaps
+Emir Feisal might detain you.  There will be a boat going from
+Jaffa in two days' time.  Two days will give you a chance to
+recover from the outrageous experience before we escort you to
+the coast.  A first-class passage will be reserved for you by
+wire, and you will be put on board with every possible courtesy.
+You might ask the French High Commissioner to let me know if
+there is anything further he would like us to do about it.  Now,
+I'll ring for a clerk to take you to the medical officer--under
+escort, so that you mayn't be subjected to further outrage or
+indignity.  Good evening!"
+
+"Anything more for me?" asked Grim, as soon as Abdul Ali had been
+led away.
+
+"Not tonight, Grim.  Come and see me in the morning." Grim
+saluted.  The Administrator looked at me--smiled mischievously.
+
+"Have a good time?" he asked.  "Don't neglect those scratches.
+Good evening!"
+
+No more.  Not another word.  He never did say another word to me
+about it, although I met him afterwards a score of times.  You
+couldn't help but admire and like him.
+
+Grim led the way up the tower stairs again, and we took a last
+look at El-Kerak.  The moon was beginning to rise above the rim
+of the Moab Hills.  The land beyond the Dead Sea was wrapped in
+utter silence.  Over to the south-east you could make out one dot
+of yellow light, to prove that men lived and moved and had their
+being in that stillness.  Otherwise, you couldn't believe it was
+real country.  It looked like a vision of the home of dreams.
+
+"Got anything to do tonight?" asked Grim.  "Can you stay awake?
+I know where some Jews are going to play Beethoven in an upper
+room in the ancient city.  Care to come?"
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eleven
+
+"And the rest of the acts of Ahaziah--"
+
+
+I have no idea what Grim did during the next few days.  I spent
+the time studying Arabic, and saw nothing of him until he walked
+into my room at the hotel one afternoon, sat down and came
+straight to the point.
+
+"Had enough?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Got the hang of it?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," I answered.  "Allah's peace, as they call it,
+depends on the French.  They intend to get Damascus and all
+Syria.  So they sent down Abdul Ali of Damascus to make trouble
+for the British in Palestine;  the idea being to force the
+British to make common cause with them.  That would mean total
+defeat for the Arabs;  and Great Britain would save France scads
+of men and money.  But you pulled that plug.  I saw you do it.  I
+heard Abdul Ali of Damascus tell you Scharnhoff's name.  Did you
+go after Scharnhoff?"
+
+"No, not yet," he answered.  "You're no diplomat."
+
+I knew that.  I have never wished to be one, never having met a
+professional one who did not, so to speak, play poker with a cold
+deck and at least five aces.  The more frankly they seem to be
+telling the truth, the more sure you may be they are lying.
+
+"Neither are you," I answered.  "You're a sportsman.  Are you
+allowing Scharnhoff weight for age, and a fair start--or what?"
+
+He chuckled.  "You believed old Abdul-Ali of Damascus?  He's a
+French secret political agent.  So whatever he told us is
+certainly not true.  Or, if it is true, or partially true, then
+it's the kind of truth that is deadlier deceptive than a good
+clean God-damned lie.  Get this:  such men as Abdul Ali would
+face torture rather than betray an associate--unless they're sure
+the associate is a traitor or about to become one.  A government
+can't easily punish its own spies on foreign territory.  But by
+betraying them, it can sometimes get the other government to do
+it.  That Abdul Ali betrayed Scharnhoff to me, proves one of two
+things.  Abdul Ali was lying, and Scharnhoff harmless--or in
+some way Scharnhoff has fallen foul of his French paymasters
+and they want him punished.  Very likely he has drawn French
+money, for their purposes, and has misused it for his own ends.
+Or perhaps they have promised him money, and wish to back down.
+Possibly he knows too much about their agents, and they want
+him silenced.  They propose to have us silence him.  I'm going
+to call on Scharnhoff."
+
+"You suspect him of double treachery?"
+
+"I suspect him of being a one-track-minded, damned old
+visionary."
+
+I had met Hugo Scharnhoff.  Long before the War he had been a
+professor of orientology at Vienna University.  At the moment he
+was technically an "enemy alien."  But he had lived so many years
+in Jerusalem, and was reputed so studious and harmless, that the
+British let him stay there after Allenby captured the city.  A
+man of moderate private means, he owned a stone house in the
+German Colony with its back to the Valley of Hinnom.
+
+"Care to come?" Grim asked me.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Know your Bible?"  He proceeded to quote from it:  "And the rest
+of the acts of Ahaziah which he did are they not written in the
+book of the chronicles of the Kings of Israel?"'
+
+"What of it?"
+
+"That was set down in Aramaic, nowadays called Hebrew, something
+like three thousand years ago," said Grim.  "It's Aramaic magic.
+Let's take a look at it."
+
+We trudged together down the dusty Bethlehem Road, turned to the
+east just short of the Pool of the Sultan (where they now had a
+delousing station for British soldiers) and went nearly to the
+end of the colony of neat stone villas that the Germans built
+before the War, and called Rephaim.  It was a prosperous colony
+until the Kaiser, putting two and two, made five of them and had
+to guess again.
+
+The house we sought stood back from the narrow road, at a corner,
+surrounded by a low stone wall and a mass of rather dense shrubs
+that obscured the view from the windows.  The front door was a
+thing of solid olive-wood.  We had to hammer on it for several
+minutes.  There was no bell.
+
+A woman opened it at last--an Arab in native costume, gazelle-
+eyed, as they all are, and quite good looking, although hardly in
+her first youth.  Her face struck me as haunted.  She was either
+ashamed when her eyes met Grim's or else afraid of him.  But she
+smiled pleasantly enough and without asking our business led the
+way at once to a room at the other end of a long hall that was
+crowded with all sorts of curios.  They were mostly stone bric-a-
+brac-fragments of Moabite pottery and that kind of thing, with a
+pretty liberal covering of ordinary house dust.  In fact, the
+house had the depressing "feel" of a rarely visited museum.
+
+The room she showed us into was the library--three walls lined
+with books, mostly with German titles--a big cupboard in one
+corner, reaching from floor to ceiling--a big desk by the
+window--three armchairs and a stool.  There were no pictures,
+and the only thing that smacked of ornament was the Persian rug
+on the floor.
+
+We waited five minutes before Scharnhoff came in, looking as if
+we had disturbed his nap.  He was an untidy stout man with green
+goggles and a grayish beard, probably not yet sixty years of age,
+and well preserved.  He kept his pants up with a belt, and his
+shirt bulged untidily over the top.  When he sat down you could
+see the ends of thick combinations stuffed into his socks.  He
+gave you the impression of not fitting into western clothes at
+all and of being out of sympathy with most of what they represent.
+
+He was cordial enough--after one swift glance around the room.
+
+"Brought a new acquaintance for you," said Grim, introducing
+me.  "I've told him how all the subalterns come to you for
+Palestinian lore--"
+
+"Ach!  The young Lotharios!  Each man a Don Juan!  All they come
+to me for is tales of Turkish harems, of which I know no more
+than any one.  They are not interested in subjects of real
+importance.  'How many wives had Djemal Pasha?  How many of them
+were European?'  That is what they ask me.  When I discuss
+ancient history it is only about King Solomon's harem that they
+care to know;  or possibly about the modern dancing girls of El-
+Kerak, who are all spies.  But there is no need to inform you as
+to that.  Eh?  I haven't seen you for a long time, Major Grim.
+What have you been doing?"
+
+"Nothing much.  I was at the Tomb of the Kings yesterday."
+
+Scharnhoff smiled scornfully.
+
+"Now you must have some whiskey to take the taste of that untruth
+out of your mouth!  How can a man of your attainments call that
+obviously modern fraud by such a name?  The place is not nearly
+two thousand years old!  It is probably the tomb of a Syrian
+queen named Adiabene and her family.  Josephus mentions it.  This
+land is full--every square metre of it--of false antiquities with
+real names, and real antiquities that never have been discovered!
+But why should a man like you, Major Grim, lend yourself to
+perpetuating falsity?"
+
+He walked over to the cupboard to get whiskey, and from where we
+sat we could both of us see what he was doing.  The cupboard was
+in two parts, top and bottom, without any intervening strip of
+wood between the doors, which fitted tightly.  When he opened the
+top part the lower door opened with it.  He kicked it shut again
+at once, but I had seen inside--not that it was interesting at
+the moment.
+
+He set whiskey and tumblers on the desk, poured liberally, and
+went on talking.
+
+"Tomb of the Kings?  Hah!  Tomb of the Kings of Judah?  Hah!  If
+any one can find that, he will have something more important than
+Ludendorff's memoirs!  Something merkwurdig, believe me!"
+
+He stiffened suddenly, and looked at Grim through the green
+goggles as if he were judging an antiquity.
+
+"Perhaps this is not the time to make you a little suggestion, eh?"
+
+Grim's face wrinkled into smiles.
+
+"This man knows enough to hang me anyhow!  Fire away!"
+
+"Ah!  But I would not like him to hang me!"
+
+"He's as close as a clam.  What's your notion?"
+
+"Nothing serious, but--between us three, then--you and I are both
+foreigners in this place, Major Grim, although I have made it my
+home for fifteen years.  You have no more interest in this
+government and its ridiculous rules than I have.  What do you
+say--shall we find the Tomb of the Kings together?"
+
+Grim wrinkled into smiles again and glanced down at his uniform.
+
+"Yes, exactly!" agreed Scharnhoff.  "That is the whole point.
+They call me an enemy alien.  I am to all intents and purposes a
+prisoner.  You are a British officer--can do what you like--go
+where you like.  You wear red tabs;  you are on the staff;
+nobody will dare to question you.  These English have stopped all
+exploration until they get their mandate.  After that they will
+take good care that only English societies have the exploration
+privilege.  But what if we--you and I, that is to say--between
+us extract the best plum from the pudding before those miscalled
+statesmen sign the mandate--eh?  It can be done!  It can be done!"
+
+Grim chuckled:
+
+"I suppose you already see a picture of you and me with an
+ancient tomb in our trunks--say a few tons of the more artistic
+parts--beating it for the frontier and hawking the stuff
+afterward to second-hand furniture dealers?  Pour me another
+whiskey, prof, and then we'll go steal the Mosque of Omar!"
+
+"Ach!  You laugh at me--you jest--you mock--you sneer.  But I
+know what I propose.  Do you know what will be found in that Tomb
+of the Kings of Judah when we discover it?"
+
+"Bones.  Dry bones.  A few gold ornaments perhaps.  A stale
+smell certainly."
+
+"The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel!  Think of it!
+A parchment roll--perhaps two or three rolls--not too big to go
+into a valise--worth more than all the other ancient manuscripts
+in the world all put together!  Himmel!  What a find that would
+be!  What a record!  What a refutation of all the historians and
+the fools who set themselves up for authorities nowadays!  What a
+price it would bring!  What would your Metropolitan Museum in New
+York not pay for it!  What would the Jews not pay for it!  They
+would raise millions among them and pay any price we cared
+to ask!  The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel--
+only think!"
+
+"But why the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel in the tomb of the
+Kings of Judah?" Grim asked, more by way of keeping up the
+conversation, I think, than because he could not guess the
+answer.  He is an omnivorous reader, and there is not much
+recorded of the Near East that he does not know.
+
+"Don't you know your history?  You know, of course, that after
+King Solomon died the Jews divided into two kingdoms.  The
+latter-day Jews speak of themselves as Israelites, but they are
+nothing of the kind;  they are Judah-ites.  The tribe of Judah
+remained in Jerusalem, forming one small kingdom;  their
+descendants are the Jews of today.  Part of the tribe of Benjamin
+stayed with them.  The other seceding ten tribes called
+themselves the kingdom of Israel."
+
+"Everybody knows that," said Grim.  "What of it?"
+
+"Well, the Assyrians came down and conquered the kingdom of
+Israel--marched all the Israelites away into captivity--and they
+vanished out of history.  From that day to this their Book of
+Chronicles, so often referred to in the Old Testament, has never
+been seen nor heard of."
+
+"Of course not," said Grim.  "The King of Assyria used it to wipe
+his razor on when he was through shaving every morning."
+
+"Ach!  You joke again;  but I tell you I am not joking.  Such
+people as those Hebrews are naturally secretive and so proud that
+they wrote down for posterity all the doings of their puny kings,
+would never have let their records fall into the hands of the
+Assyrians.  They themselves were marched away in slave-gangs, but
+they left their Book behind them, safely hidden.  Be sure of it!
+Ten years ago I found a manuscript in the place they now call
+Nablus, which in those days was Schechem.  Schechem was the
+capital of the Kingdom of Israel, just as Jerusalem was the
+capital of the Kingdom of Judah, or the Jews.  I sold that
+manuscript for a good price after I had photographed it.  The
+idiots to whom I sold it--historians they call themselves!--value
+it only as a relic of antiquity.  I made a digest of it--analyzed
+it--studied it--compared it with other authentic facts in my
+possession--and came to the definite conclusion that I hold the
+clue to the whereabouts of that lost Book of Chronicles."
+
+"Let's see the photograph," Grim suggested.
+
+"It has been impounded with other so-called 'enemy property' by
+your friends the British.  I suppose they thought the German
+General Staff might get hold of it and conquer the Suez Canal!
+But what good would the sight of it do?  You couldn't understand
+a word of it.  It convinced me, after months of study, that when
+the Ten Tribes were carried away into captivity by the Assyrians
+they sent their records secretly to Jerusalem.  Ever since the
+secession the Israelites and Jews had been jealous enemies.  But
+they were relatives after all, boasting a common ancestor, proud
+of the same history, more or less observing the same religion.
+And Schechem was only about thirty miles from Jerusalem, which
+was considered an impregnable fortress until the Babylonians took
+it later on.  So they sent their records to Jerusalem, and the
+Jews hid them.  Where?  Where do you suppose?"
+
+"The likeliest place would be Solomon's Temple."
+
+"You think so?  Then you think superficially, my young friend.
+Let us return to that Tomb of the Kings again for a moment.  That
+place that you visited is such an obvious fake that even the
+guide-books make light of it.  The one all-important thing in
+Palestine that never yet has been discovered is the real Tomb of
+the Kings.  Yet Jerusalem, where it certainly must be, has been
+searched and looted a hundred times from end to end.  Therefore--
+you follow me?--the Jews must have concealed it very cunningly.
+Answer me, then:  would the Jews, who were always a practical
+people and not corpse-worshippers like the Egyptians, have taken
+all that trouble to hide the tomb of their kings unless there
+were important treasure in it?  Answer me!"
+
+"So you expect to find treasure in addition to the lost Book of
+Chronicles?"
+
+"Certainly I do!  The treasure will make the whole proceeding
+safe.  Let the British have it!  The fools will be so blinded by
+the glamour of gold, that I shall easily extract the things of
+real value--the invaluable manuscripts!  Then let the men who
+call themselves historians take a back seat!"
+
+He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
+
+"Were you looking for the Tomb of the Kings, then, before the
+War?" Grim asked him.
+
+"Not exactly.  Under the Turks it was difficult.  The Turks were
+beautifully corrupt.  By paying for it I could get permission to
+excavate on any property owned by Christians.  But the minute I
+touched Moslem places the Turks became fanatical.  The Arabs,
+now, are different--fanatics, too, but with a new sort of
+fanaticism--new to them, I mean--the kind that made the French
+revolutionists destroy everything their ancestors had set value
+on.  There are plenty of Arabs so full of this disease of
+Bolshevism that they would make it easy for me to desecrate what
+others believe is holy ground.  But these idiots of English are
+worse than the Turks!  They have stopped all excavation.  They
+are so afraid of Bolshevism that, if they could, they would
+imitate Joshua and make the sun stand still!"
+
+"Well, what's the idea?" asked Grim, finishing his whiskey.
+
+Scharnhoff shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You know my position.  I am helpless--here on suffrance--obliged
+by idiotic regulations to sit in idleness.  But if I could find a
+British officer with brains--surely there must be one somewhere!
+--one with some authority, who is considered above suspicion, I
+could show him, perhaps, how to get rich without committing any
+crime he need feel ashamed of."
+
+I could not see Grim's eyes from where I sat, and he did not make
+any nervous movement that could have given him away.  Yet I was
+conscious of a new alertness, and I think Scharnhoff detected it,
+too, for he changed his tactics on the instant.
+
+"Hah! Hah!  I was joking!  Nobody who is fool enough to be a
+professional soldier would be clever enough to find the Tomb of
+the Kings and keep the secret for ten minutes!  Hah! Hah!  But I
+have a favour I would like to beg of you, Major Grim."
+
+"I've no particular authority, you know."
+
+"Ach!  The Administrator listens to you;  I am assured of that."
+
+"He listens sometimes, yes, then usually does the other thing.
+Well, what's the request?"
+
+"A simple one.  There is a risk--not much, but just a little risk
+that some fool might stumble on that secret of the Tomb of the
+Kings and get away with the treasure.  Now, did you ever set a
+thief to catch a thief?  Hah! Hah!  I would be a better watch-dog
+than any you could find.  I know Jerusalem from end to end.  I
+know all the likely places.  Why don't you get permission for me
+to wander about Jerusalem undisturbed and keep my eye open for
+tomb-robbers?  If I am not to have the privilege of discovering
+that Book of Chronicles, at least I would like to see that no
+common plunderer gets it.  Surely I am known by now to be
+harmless!  Surely they don't suspect me any longer of being an
+agent of the Kaiser, or any such nonsense as that!  Why not make
+use of me?  Get me a permit, please, Major Grim, to go where I
+please by day or night without interference.  Tomb-robbers
+usually work at night, you know."
+
+"All right," said Grim.  "I'll try to do that."
+
+"Ah!  I always knew you were a man of good sense!  Have more
+whiskey?  A cigar then?"
+
+"Can't promise anything, of course," said Grim, "but you shall
+have an answer within twenty-four hours."
+
+Outside, as we turned our faces toward Jerusalem's gray wall,
+Grim opened up a little and gave me a suggestion of something in
+the wind.
+
+"Did you see what he has in that cupboard?"
+
+"Yes.  Two Arab costumes.  Two short crow-bars."
+
+"Did you notice the grayish dust on the rug--three or four
+footprints at the corner near the cupboard?"
+
+"Can't say I did."
+
+"No.  You wouldn't be looking for it.  These men who pose as
+intellectuals never believe that any one else has brains.  They
+fool themselves.  There's one thing no man can afford to do, East
+of the sun or West of the moon.  You can steal, slay, intrigue,
+burn--break all the Ten Commandments except one, and have a
+chance to get away with it.  There's just one thing you can't do,
+and succeed.  He's done it!"
+
+"And the thing is?"
+
+"Cheat a woman!"
+
+"You mean his house keeper?  She who answered the door?"
+
+Grim nodded.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twelve
+
+"You know you'll get scuppered if you're found out!"
+
+
+Two days passed again without my seeing Grim, although I called
+on him repeatedly at the "Junior Staff Officers' Mess" below the
+Zionist Hospital.  Suliman, the eight-year-old imp of Arab
+mischief, who did duty as page-boy met me on each occasion at the
+door and took grinning delight in disappointing me.
+
+He was about three and a half feet high--coal-black, with a
+tarboosh worn at an angle on his kinky hair and a flashing white
+grin across his snub-nosed face that would have made an archangel
+count the change out of two piastres twice.  Suliman and cool
+cheek were as obvious team-mates as the Gemini, and I was one of
+a good number, that included every single member of that
+unofficial mess, who could never quite see what Grim found so
+admirable in him.  Grim never explained.
+
+Taking the cue from his master, neither did Suliman ever
+explain anything to any one but Grim, who seemed to understand
+him perfectly.
+
+"Jimgrim not here.  No, not coming back.  Much business.
+Good-bye!"
+
+Somehow you couldn't suspect that kid of telling the truth.
+However, there was nothing for it but to go away, with a
+conviction in the small of your back that he was grinning
+mischievously after you.
+
+Grim had found him one day starving and lousy in the archway of
+the Jaffa Gate, warming his fingers at a guttering candle-end
+preparatory to making a meal off the wax.  He took him home and
+made Martha, the old Russian maid-of-all-work, clean him with
+kerosene and soft soap--gave him a big packing-case to sleep
+in along with Julius Caesar the near-bull-dog mascot--and
+thereafter broke him in and taught him things seldom included
+in a school curriculum.
+
+In the result, Suliman adored Grim with all the concentrated zeal
+of hero-worship of which almost any small boy is capable;  but
+under the shadow of Grim's protection he feared not even "brass-
+hats" nor regarded civilians, although he was dreadfully afraid
+of devils.  The devil-fear was a relic of his negroid ancestry.
+Some Arab Sheikh probably captured his great-grandmother on a
+slave-raid.  Superstition lingers in dark veins longer than any
+other human failing.
+
+I think I called five times before he confessed at last
+reluctantly that Grim was in.  That was in the morning after
+breakfast, and I was shown into the room with the fireplace and
+the deep armchairs.  Grim was reading but seemed to me more than
+usually reserved, as if the book had been no more than a screen
+to think behind, that left him in a manner unprotected when he
+laid it down.  I talked at random, and he hardly seemed to
+be listening.
+
+"Say," he said, suddenly interrupting me, "you came out of that
+El-Kerak affair pretty creditably.  Suppose I let you see
+something else from the inside.  Will you promise not to shout it
+all over Jerusalem?"
+
+"Use your own judgment," I answered.
+
+"You mustn't ask questions."
+
+"All right."
+
+"If any one in the Administration pounces on you in the course of
+it, you'll have to drop out and know nothing."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"It may prove a bit more risky than the El-Kerak business."
+
+"Couldn't be," I answered.
+
+"You can't talk enough Arabic to get away with.  But could you
+act deaf and dumb?"
+
+"Sure--in three languages."
+
+"You understand--I've no authority to let you in on this.  I
+might catch hell if I were found out doing it.  But I need help,
+of a certain sort.  I want a man who isn't likely to be spotted
+by the gang I'm after.  Get behind that screen--quick!"
+
+It was a screen that hid a door leading to the pantry and the
+servants' quarters.  There was a Windsor chair behind it, and it
+is much easier to keep absolutely still when you are fairly
+comfortable.  I had hardly sat down when a man wearing spurs,
+who trod heavily, entered the room and I heard Grim get up to
+greet him.
+
+"Are we alone?" a voice asked gruffly.
+
+Instead of answering Grim came and looked behind the screen,
+opened the door leading to the pantry, closed it again, locked
+it, and without as much as a glance at me returned to face
+his visitor.
+
+"Well, general, what is it?"
+
+"This is strictly secret."
+
+"I'll bet it isn't," said Grim.  "If it's about missing
+explosives I know more than you do."
+
+"My God!  It's out?  Two tons of TNT intended for the air force
+gone without a trace?  The story's out?"
+
+"I know it.  Catesby sent me word by messenger last night from
+Ludd, after you put him under arrest."
+
+"Damn the man!  Well, that's what's happened.  Catesby's fault.
+They'll blame me.  The truck containing the stuff was run into a
+siding three days ago.  Through young Catesby's negligence it was
+left there without a guard.  Catesby will be broke for that as
+sure as my name is Jenkins.  But, by the knell of hell's bells,
+Grim, more than Catesby will lose their jobs unless we find the
+stuff!  Two tons.  Half enough to blow up Palestine!"
+
+"Too bad about Catesby," said Grim.
+
+"Never mind, Catesby.  Damn him!  Consider my predicament!  How
+can I go to the Administrator with a lame-duck story about
+missing TNT and nothing done about it?"
+
+"Nothing done?  You've passed the buck, haven't you?  Catesby is
+under arrest, you say."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I know Catesby," Grim retorted quietly.  "He made that fine
+stand at Beersheba--when the Arabs rushed the camp, and you
+weren't looking.  He took the blame for your carelessness, and
+never squealed.  You took the credit for his presence of mind,
+and have treated him like a dog ever since.  You expect me to try
+to save your bacon and forget Catesby's?"
+
+"Nonsense, Grim!  You're talking without your book.  Here's what
+happened:  the stuff arrived at Ludd in a truck attached to the
+end of a mixed train.  The R.T.O.* sent me a memorandum and
+stalled the truck on a siding.  I gave the memorandum to
+Catesby." [*Railway Traffic Officer.]
+
+"He tells me in the note I received last night that you did
+nothing of the kind."
+
+"Then he's a liar.  He forgot all about it and did nothing.  When
+the Air Force sent to get the stuff the truck was empty."
+
+"And you want me to find it, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes.  The quicker the better!"
+
+"And be a party to breaking Catesby?  I like my job, but not
+that much!"
+
+"You refuse then to hunt for the TNT?"
+
+"I take my orders straight from the Administrator.  He expects me
+in half an hour.  You want me to smooth the way for you with Sir
+Louis.  I'm much more interested in Catesby, who would face a
+firing party sooner than soak another fellow for his own fault.
+Catesby assures me in writing that the first he ever heard of
+that TNT was when you ordered him arrested after discovery of the
+loss.  His word goes, as far as I'm concerned.  If you want me to
+help you, find another goat than Catesby.  That's my answer."
+
+There followed quite a long pause.  Perhaps Brigadier-General
+Jenkins was wondering what chance he would stand in a show-down.
+Whoever had heard the mess and canteen gossip knew that Jenkins'
+career had been one long string of miracles by which he had
+attained promotion without in any way deserving it, and a
+parallel series of even greater ones by which he had saved
+himself from ruin by contriving to blame some one else.
+
+"You want me to white-wash Catesby?" he said at last.  "If you
+pounce quickly on the TNT, no one need know it was lost."
+
+"If you court-martial Catesby, the public shall know who lost it,
+and who didn't, even if it costs me my commission!"
+
+"Blast you!  Insubordination!"
+
+"Is your car outside?" Grim answered.  "Why don't you drive me up
+to the Administrator and charge me with it?"
+
+"Don't be an idiot!  I came to you to avoid a scandal.  If this
+news gets out there'll be a panic.  Things are touchy enough as
+it is."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well--if I drop the charge against Catesby--?"
+
+"Then I shall not have to fight for him."
+
+"I'll see what I can do."
+
+"Be definite!"
+
+"Damn and blast you!  All right, I'll clear Catesby."
+
+In that ominous minute, like the devil in an old-time drama,
+Suliman knocked at the door leading from the outer hall.  Grim
+opened it, and I heard the boy's voice piping up in Arabic.  The
+Administrator was in his car outside, waiting to know whether
+Major Grim was indoors.
+
+"Where's your car?" I heard Grim ask.
+
+"I sent the man to get a tire changed," Jenkins answered.
+
+"Then Sir Louis needn't know you're here.  Do you want to
+see him?"
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"You can get behind that screen if you like."
+
+I thought Jenkins would explode when he found me sitting there.
+He was a big, florid-faced man with a black moustache waxed into
+points, and a neck the color of rare roast beef--a man not given
+to self-restraint in any shape or form.  But he had to make a
+quick decision.  Sir Louis' footsteps were approaching.  He
+glared at me, made a sign to me to sit still, twisted his
+moustache savagely, and listened, breathing through his mouth to
+avoid the tell-tale whistle of his hairy nostrils.  I heard Grim
+start toward the hall, but Sir Louis turned him back and came
+straight in.
+
+"It occurred to me I'd save you the time of coming up to see me
+this morning, Grim, and look in on you instead before I start my
+rounds.  Any new developments?"
+
+"Not yet, sir.  I'll need forty-eight hours.  If we move too
+fast they may touch the stuff off before we get the whole gang
+in the net."
+
+"You're sure you'd rather not have the police?"
+
+"Quite.  They mean well, but they're clumsy."
+
+"Um-m-m!  All the same, the thing's ticklish.  There are rumours
+about all ready.  The Grand Mufti* came to me before breakfast
+with a wild tale.  I've promised him some Sikhs for special
+sentry duty.  He'd hardly gone before some Zionists came with a
+story that the Arabs are planning to blow up their hospital;  I
+gave them ten men and an officer."  [*The religious head of the
+Moslem community.]
+
+"Is the city quiet?" Grim asked him.
+
+"Fair to middling.  The Jews refused to take their shutters down
+this morning.  I had to issue an order about it.  I hear now that
+they're doing business about as usual, but I've ordered the
+number of men on duty within the city walls to be doubled.  At
+the first sign of disturbance I shall have the gates closed.  Are
+you quite sure you're in touch?"
+
+"Quite. sure, sir.  I'm positive of what I told you last night.
+Will you be seeing Colonel Goodenough?"
+
+"Yes, in ten minutes."
+
+"Please ask him to hold his Sikhs at my disposal for the next two
+days.  You might add, sir, that if he cares to see sport he could
+do worse than lend his own services."
+
+"I'll do that.  You can count on Goodenough.  That's a soldier
+devoid of nonsense.  Anything else?"
+
+"That's all."
+
+"Keep me informed.  Remember, Grim, I'm responsible for all you
+do.  I've endorsed you in blank, as it were.  Don't overlook
+that point."
+
+"I won't, sir."
+
+Sir Louis walked out.  Almost before his spurs ceased jingling in
+the tiled hall, Brigadier-General Jenkins strode out in a
+towering rage from behind the screen.
+
+"'Pon my soul, a spy's trick!" he exploded.  "Had an
+eavesdropper, did you?  Listening from behind a screen while you
+tricked me into a promise on Catesby's account!"
+
+"Sure," Grim answered, folding the screen back, and letting
+his face wrinkle in smiles all the way up to the roots of
+his hair.  Very comical he looked, for his eyebrows were
+only partly sprouted again.  "Had two of you to listen in
+on the Administrator!"
+
+"Endorses you in blank, eh?  How long would he let the
+endorsement stand if he knew I was behind that screen while he
+was talking to you?"
+
+"Try him!" Grim suggested.  "Shall I call him back?  He doesn't
+want to break you--told me so, in fact, last night--but he could
+change his mind, I daresay.  My tip to you is to get back to Ludd
+as fast as your car can take you, release Catesby, and say as
+little as possible to any one!"
+
+"Damn you for a Yankee!" Jenkins answered.  "You've got me
+cornered for the moment, and you make the most of it.  But wait
+till my turn comes!  As for you, sir," Jenkins turned and looked
+me up and down with all the arrogance that nice new crossed
+swords on his shoulder can give a certain sort of man, "don't let
+me catch you trying to interfere in any Administration business,
+that's all!"
+
+I offered him a cigarette, grinning.  There was no sense in
+picking a quarrel.  No man likes to discover that a perfect
+stranger has overheard his intimate confessions.  His annoyance
+was understandable.  But he hadn't nice manners.  He knocked the
+cigarette case out of my hand and kicked it across the room.  So
+I got into one of the deep armchairs and laughed at him in self-
+defense, to preserve my own temper from boiling up over the top.
+
+"To hell with both of you!" Jenkins thundered, and strode out
+like Mars on the war-path.
+
+"Poor old Jinks!" said Grim, as soon as he had gone.  "As Sir
+Louis said last night, he has a wife and family besides the
+unofficial ladies on his string.  All they'll have to divide
+between them soon, at the rate he's going, will be his half-pay.
+He has fought for promotion all his days, to keep abreast of
+expenses.  What that string of cormorants will do with his four
+hundred pounds a year, when he oversteps at last and gets
+retired, beggars imagination!  However, let's get busy."
+
+Business consisted in dressing me up as an Arab with the aid of
+Suliman, and drilling me painstakingly for half-an-hour, both of
+them using every trick they knew to make me laugh or show
+surprise, and Grim nodding approval each time I contrived not to.
+More difficult than acting deaf and dumb was the trick of
+squatting with my legs crossed, but I had learned it after a
+fashion in India years ago, and only needed schooling.
+
+"You'll get scuppered if you're caught," he warned me.  "If
+Suliman wasn't so scared of devils I wouldn't risk it, but I must
+have somebody to keep an eye on him when the time comes;  that'll
+be tomorrow, I think."
+
+"Suppose you tell me the object of the game," I suggested.  "I'm
+sick of only studying the rules."
+
+"Well--your part will be to sit over those two tons of TNT and
+see that nobody explodes them ahead of time.  There's a
+conspiracy on foot to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
+
+"You mean the Mosque of Omar?"
+
+"The place tourists call the Mosque of Omar.  The site of
+Solomon's Temple--the Rock of Abraham--the threshing-floor of
+Araunah the Jebusite.  Next after the shrine at Mecca it's the
+most sacred spot in the whole Mahommedan world."
+
+"Good lord!" I said. "Are the Zionists so reckless?".
+
+"No, the Arabs are.  Remember what old Scharnhoff said the other
+day about the new fanaticism?"
+
+"Is Scharnhoff mixed up in it?"
+
+"He's being watched.  If the Arabs pull it off, they'll accuse
+the Jews of doing it, and set to work to butcher every Jew in the
+Near East.  That will oblige the British to protect the Jews.
+That in turn will set every Mohammedan in the world--'specially
+Indians, but Egyptians, too--against the British.  Jihad--green
+banner--holy war--all the East and Northern Africa alight while
+the French snaffle Syria.  Sound good to you?"
+
+"Sir Louis knows this?"
+
+"He, is paid to know things."
+
+"And he lets you play cat and mouse with it?"
+
+"Got to be careful.  Suppose we draw the net too soon, what then?
+Most of the conspirators escape.  The story leaks out.  The Jews
+get the blame for the attempt, and sooner or later the massacre
+begins anyhow.  What we've got to do is bag every last mother's
+son of them, and suppress the whole story--return the TNT to
+store, and swear it was never missing."
+
+"The Administrator has his nerve," I said.
+
+"You'll need yours, too, before this game's played," Grim
+answered.  "D'you see now why I picked on you for an accomplice?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"You're the one man in Jerusalem whom nobody will suspect, or be
+on the look-out for.  The men we're up against are the shrewdest
+rats in Palestine.  They've got a list of British officers, my
+name included, of course.  They'll know which men are assigned to
+special duty, and they'll keep every one of us shadowed."
+
+"Won't that--I mean, how can you work if you're shadowed?"
+
+"Me?  I shall catch my spur in the carpet, fall downstairs and
+break a leg at ten-fifteen.  At ten-thirty the doctor comes, and
+finds me too badly hurt to be moved.  He sends word of it to Sir
+Louis by an orderly who can be trusted to talk to any one he
+meets on the way.  I leave by the back way at ten forty-five.
+However, here's a chance for you to practise deaf-and-dumb drill.
+There's some one coming.  Squat down in that corner.  Look meek
+and miserable.  That's the stuff.  Answer the door, Suliman."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Thirteen
+
+"You may now be unsafe and an outlaw and enjoy yourself!"
+
+
+The man who entered was a short, middle-aged Jew of the type that
+writes political reviews for magazines--black morning coat, straw
+hat, gold pince-nez--a neatly trimmed dark beard beginning to
+turn gray from intense mental emotion--nearly bald--a manner of
+conceding the conventions rather than argue the point, without
+admitting any necessity for them--a thin-lipped smile that
+apologized for smiling in a world so serious and bitter.  He wore
+a U.S.A. ten-dollar gold piece on his watch chain, by way of
+establishing his nationality.
+
+"Well, Mr. Eisernstein?  Trouble again?  Sit down and let's hear
+the worst," said Grim.
+
+Eisernstein remained standing and glanced at me over in the
+corner.
+
+"I will wait until you are alone."
+
+"Ignore him--deaf and dumb," Grim answered.  "Half a minute,
+though--have you had breakfast?"
+
+"Breakfast!  This is no time for eating, Mister--I beg your
+pardon, Major Grim.  I have not slept.  I shall not break
+my fast until my duty is done.  If it is true that the Emperor
+Nero fiddled while Rome burned, then I find him no worse than
+this Administrator!"
+
+"Has he threatened to crucify you?" Grim asked.  "Take a
+seat, do."
+
+"He may crucify me, and I will thank him, if he will only in
+return for it pay some attention to the business for which he
+draws a salary!  I drove to Headquarters to see him.  He was not
+there.  Nobody would tell me where he is.  I drove down again
+from the Mount of Olives and luckily caught sight of his car in
+the distance.  I contrived to intercept him.  I told him there is
+a plot on foot to massacre every individual of my race in the
+Near East--a veritable pogrom.  He was polite.  He seems to think
+politeness is the Christian quality that covers the multitude of
+sins.  He offered me a cigar!
+
+"I offered him a telegram blank, with which to cable for
+reenforcements!  He said that all rumours in Jerusalem become
+exaggerated very quickly, and offered me a guard of one soldier
+to follow me about!  I insisted on immediate military precautions
+on a large scale failing which I will cable the Foreign Office in
+London at my own expense.  I offered to convince him with
+particulars about this contemplated pogrom but he said he had an
+urgent appointment and referred me to you, just as Nero might
+have referred a question regarding the amphitheatre to one of
+his subordinates!"
+
+"Pogroms mean nothing in his young life," Grim answered smiling.
+"I'm here to do the dirty work.  Suppose you spill the news."
+
+"You must have heard the news!  Yet you ignore it!  The Moslems
+are saying that we Zionists have offered two million pounds, or
+some such ridiculous sum, for the site of Solomon's Temple.  They
+are spreading the tale broadcast.  Their purpose is to stir up
+fanaticism against us.  The ignorant among them set such value on
+that rock and the mosque their cut-throat ancestors erected on it
+that Jews are now openly threatened as they pass through the
+streets.  Yet there is not one word of truth in the story of our
+having made any such offer."
+
+"There are plenty of troops," said Grim.  "Any attempt at
+violence could be handled instantly."
+
+"Then you will do nothing?"
+
+"What do you suggest ought to be done?"
+
+"Here is a list.  Read it.  Those are the names of fifty Arabs
+who are active in spreading anti-Zionist propaganda."
+
+Grim read the list carefully.
+
+"All talkers," he said.  "Not a really dangerous man among them."
+
+"Ah!  There you are!  I might have expected it!"  Eisernstein
+threw up his hands in a gesture of contempt rather than despair.
+"Nobody cares what happens to Jews.  Nobody cares for our
+sleepless agony of mind.  Nobody cares how or what we suffer
+until afterward, when there will be polite expressions of regret,
+which the survivors will assess at a true valuation!  It is the
+same wherever we turn.  Last night--at half-past one in the
+morning--a committee of us, every one American, Called at the
+American consulate to tell our consul of our danger.  The consul
+was unsympathetic in the last degree.  Yet our coreligionists in
+the States are taxed to pay his salary.  He said it was not
+his business.  He referred us to the Administrator.  The
+Administrator refers me to you.  To whom do you refer me?  To the
+devil, I suppose!"
+
+"The best thing you can do," said. Grim, "is to go ahead and deny
+that story about the offer to buy the Dome of the Rock.  You
+Zionists have got the most efficient publicity bureau on earth.
+You can reach the public ear any time you want to.  Deny the
+story, and keep on denying it."
+
+"Ah!  Who will believe us?  To be a Zionist is to be a person
+about whom anybody will believe anything;  and the more absurd
+the lie, the more readily it will be believed!  Meanwhile, the
+Moslems are sharpening their swords against us from one end of
+this land to the other!"
+
+I suppose that what Eisernstein really needed more than anything
+was sympathy, not good advice.  Grim's deliberate coolness only
+irritated the passion of a man, whose whole genius and energy
+were bent on realizing the vision of a nation of Jews firmly
+established in their ancient home.  A people that has been
+tortured in turn by all the governments can hardly be expected to
+produce un-nervous politicians.  He was at the mercy of emotions,
+obsessed by one paramount idea.  A little praise just then of his
+loyalty to an ideal, to which he had sacrificed time, means,
+health, energy, everything, would have soothed him and hurt
+nobody.  But the acidity of his scorn had bitten beneath the
+surface of Grim's good humor.
+
+"There'll be no pogrom," Grim said, getting up and lighting a
+cigarette.  "There'll be nothing resembling one.  But that won't
+be the fault of you Zionists.  You accuse without rime or reason,
+but you yell for help the minute you're accused yourselves.  I
+don't blame the Arabs for not liking you.  Nobody expects Arabs
+to enjoy having their home invaded by an organization of
+foreigners.  Yet if this Administration lifts a finger to make
+things easier for the Arabs you howl that it's unfair.
+
+"If the Administrator refuses to arrest Arabs for talking a
+little wildly, you call him a Nero.  I'm neither pro- nor anti-
+Zionist myself.  You and the Arabs may play the game out between
+you for all of me.  But I can promise you there'll be no pogrom.
+It is my business to know just what precautions have been taken."
+
+"Words! Major Grim.  Words!" sneered Eisernstein, getting up to
+go.  "What do words amount to, when presently throats are to be
+cut?  If your throat were in danger, I venture to say there would
+be something doing, instead of mere talk about precautions!  I
+hope you will enjoy your little cigarette," he added bitterly.
+"Good morning!"
+
+"Talk of fiddling while Rome burns!" Grim laughed as soon as the
+Zionist had left the room.  "Has it ever occurred to you that
+Nero was possibly smothering his feelings?  I wonder how long
+there'd be one Zionist left out here, if we simply stood aside
+and looked on.  Go and change your clothes, Suliman.  It's time I
+broke a leg."
+
+Grim disappeared upstairs himself, and returned about ten minutes
+later in the uniform of a Shereefian officer--that is to say, of
+Emir Feisul's Syrian army.  Nothing could be smarter, not
+anything better calculated to disguise a man.  Disguise, as any
+actor or detective can tell you, is not so much a matter of make-
+up as suggestion.  It is little mannerisms--unstudied habits that
+identify.  The suggestion that you are some one else is the thing
+to strive for, not the concealment of who you really are.
+
+Grim's skin had been sun-tanned in the Arab campaign under
+Lawrence against the Turks.  The Shereefian helmet is a
+compromise between the East and West, having a strip of cloth
+hanging down behind it as far as the shoulders and covering the
+ears on either side, to take the place of the Arab head-dress.
+The khaki uniform had just enough of Oriental touch about it
+to distinguish it from that of a British officer.  No man
+inexperienced in disguise would dream of choosing it;  for the
+simple reason that it would not seem to him disguise enough.  Yet
+Grim now looked so exactly like somebody else that it was hard to
+believe he was the same man who had been in the room ten minutes
+before.  His mimicry of the Syrian military walk--blended of
+pride and desire not to seem proud--was perfect.
+
+"I'm now staff-captain Ali Mirza of Feisul's army," he announced.
+"Ali Mirza a man notorious for his anti-British rancor, but
+supposed to be down here just now on a diplomatic mission.  I've
+been seen about the streets like this for the last two days.  But
+say:  that doctor is a long time on the way."
+
+He went to the telephone, but did not call the hospital;  that
+would have been too direct and possibly too secret.
+
+"Give me Headquarters--yes--who's that?--never mind who's
+speaking--say: I can't get the military hospital--something wrong
+with the wire--will you call Major Templeton and say that Major
+Grim has had an accident--yes, Grim--compound fracture of the
+thigh--very serious--ask him to go at once to Major Grim's
+quarters--thanks--that's all."  He returned to the fireplace and
+stood watching me meditatively for several minutes.
+
+"If you deceive Templeton, you'll do," he said at last.  "Wait
+a minute."
+
+He went to the desk and scribbled something in Arabic on a sheet
+of paper, sealed that in a blank envelope, and handed it to me.
+
+"Hide it.  You've two separate and quite distinct tasks, each
+more important and, in a way, dangerous than the other.  The
+principal danger is to me, not you.  If they spot you, my
+number's as good as hoisted from that minute.  You mustn't kid
+yourself you're safe for one second until the last card has
+been played."
+
+"Who are 'they'?"
+
+"I'm coming to that.  Your first job is to make it possible for
+me to get the confidence of one or two of these conspirators.
+You're a deaf-and-dumb man--stone deaf--with a message for staff-
+captain Ali Mirza, which you will only deliver to him in person.
+Suliman does the talking.  You say nothing.  You simply refuse to
+hand your message over to any one but me.  They'll appreciate why
+a deaf and dumb man should be chosen for treasonable business.
+But perhaps you're scared--maybe you'd rather reconsider it?
+It's not too late."
+
+I snorted.
+
+"All right.  These conspirators meet at Djemal's coffee shop on
+David Street.  They talk to one another in French, because the
+proprietor and the other frequenters of the place only know
+Arabic.  You know French and Arabic enough to understand a
+sentence here and there, so keep your ears wide open.  I shan't
+show up until a Sikh named Narayan Singh tells me that a certain
+Noureddin Ali is in there.  He's the bird I'm after.  He's a
+dirty little murderer, and I'm going to be right pleasant to him.
+
+"You may have to sit in the place all day waiting for me;  but
+wait until after midnight if you must.  Sooner or later Noureddin
+Ali is bound to show up.  I shall be hard after him.  If they
+offer you food, take it.  Eat with your fingers.  Eat like a pig.
+Lick the plate, if you like.  The nearer mad you seem to be, the
+safer you are.  After I get there, hang around until I give you
+money.  Then beat it."
+
+"Where to?  I can't go to my room at the hotel in this disguise."
+
+"I've thought of that.  You know Cosmopolitan Oil Davey, of
+course?  He lives at the hotel.  I'll get word to him that he may
+expect a messenger from me after dark tonight.  He'll leave word
+with the porter downstairs, who'll take you to Davey's room.  You
+can tell Davey absolutely anything.  He's white."
+
+"Well, I think I can execute that maneuver.  What's task
+number two?"
+
+"To sit on the TNT!  But one thing at a time is enough.  Let's
+attend to this one first.  Ah!  Here comes Templeton!"
+
+"Damn you, Grim!" said a calm voice in the doorway.  A tall, lean
+man in major's uniform with the blue tabs of the medical staff
+strode in.  He had the dried-out look of the Sudan, added to the
+self-reliance that comes of deciding life and death issues at a
+moment's notice.
+
+"The hospital is crowded with patients, and here you immobilize
+me for half a morning.  I can't pretend to set a compound
+fracture in ten minutes, you know!  Why couldn't you break your
+neck and have me sign a death certificate?"
+
+"Didn't occur to me," said Grim.  "But never mind, doc.  You need
+a rest.  Here's tobacco, lots to read, and an armchair.  Lock
+yourself in and be happy."
+
+"Who's this?" asked Templeton, looking down at me.
+
+"Deaf and dumb poor devil, earning a few piastres by working for
+the Intelligence."
+
+"Spy, eh?  He looks fit for honest work if he had all his
+faculties.  Is he dumb as well as deaf, or because he's deaf?"
+
+"Dunno," said Grim.  "He never speaks."
+
+"Perhaps I can do something for him.  Suppose you leave him here
+with me.  I can give him a thorough examination instead of
+wasting my time here."
+
+"He's got a job of work to do right now," said Grim.
+
+"Does he know the sign language?  Have you any way of telling him
+to come and see me at the hospital?"
+
+"I give him written instructions in Arabic."
+
+"That so?  I'll look at his ears--tell you in a minute whether
+it's worth while to come to me."
+
+He took my head between strong, authoritative hands and tilted
+it sidewise.
+
+"Hello!  What's this?"
+
+The Arab head-dress I was wearing shifted and showed
+non-Arab symptoms.
+
+"Open that bag of mine, will you, Grim, and pass me that big pair
+of forceps you'll find wrapped in oiled paper on top of
+everything.  There's something I can attend to here at once."
+
+It was an uncomfortable moment.  Grim never cracked a smile.  He
+dug out the instrument of torture and gave it to Templeton.  But
+there were two points that occurred to me, in addition to the
+knowledge that nothing whatever was the matter with my ear.
+Doctors in good standing, who are usually gentlemen, don't
+operate without permission;  and the forceps were much too big
+for any such purpose.  So I sat still.
+
+"Um-m-m!  What he really needs is a red-hot needle run down close
+to the ear-drum.  It wouldn't take five minutes, or hurt him--
+much.  After that I think he'd be able to hear perfectly.
+Suppose we try."
+
+"I can wait ten minutes yet," Grim answered.
+
+"Very well.  I've a platinum needle in the bag.  I'll get out the
+spirit-lamp and we'll soon see.  To be candid with you, I don't
+believe the man's any more deaf than you or I."
+
+"If you run a hot needle through the lobe of his ear well
+find out whether he can really talk or not," said Grim in
+his pleasantest voice.  "If he's shamming I don't mind.
+What we need in this service is a man who can endure without
+betraying himself."
+
+"Well, we'll soon see."
+
+I began to hate Grim pretty cordially.  I hated him more when
+Suliman came in, dressed for the street in a rather dirty cotton
+smock, with a turban in place of his fez.  He told the boy to
+hold the wooden handle of a paper-knife behind my ear to prevent
+the hot needle from going too far on its sizzling journey.
+It didn't seem to me the way to reciprocate volunteer secret
+service.  Suliman's grin at the prospect of seeing a man
+tortured was enough to provoke murder.  I brushed the boy aside,
+fly-fashion, got up, crossed the room, and sat down again in
+the corner.
+
+"Good enough!" laughed Grim.  "You'll do."
+
+"Yes, I think he'll do," agreed Templeton.
+
+But I took no notice.  I had seen too many games lost and won
+with the last card.  Templeton looked down at Suliman:
+
+"Tell him the game's over.  He may talk now."
+
+"Mafish mukhkh!" [No brains!] the boy answered, grinning and
+tapping his own forehead.  "Magnoon!" [Mad!]
+
+"I think I can trust them both," said Grim, smiling in my
+direction.  "All right, old man;  time out!  If you'd spoken once
+there'd have been nothing more between you and a life of safety
+and respectability!"
+
+"Whereas," said Templeton, "you may now be unsafe and an outlaw
+and enjoy yourself!  Are you sure they haven't marked him?" he
+asked Grim.
+
+"Sure!  Why should they suspect a tourist?  But I've taken
+precautions.  Word is on the way to the hotel to forward all his
+mail to Jaffa until further notice."  He laughed at me again.  "I
+hope you're not expecting important letters!"
+
+Suliman had evidently been well schooled in advance, for at a nod
+from Grim he came over and took my hand, as if I were blind in
+addition to the other supposed infirmities.  He led me out by a
+back-door, across a yard into an alley, which we followed as far
+as a main road and then turned toward the Jaffa Gate.  Looking
+back once I saw Grim in his Shereefian uniform striding along
+behind us;  but where the road forked he took the other turning.
+
+There is contentment in walking disguised through crowded
+streets, even when you are in tow of eight-year-old iniquity that
+regards you as a lump of baggage to be pushed this and that way.
+Suliman plainly considered me a rank outsider, only admitted into
+the game on sufferance.  Having said I was "magnoon" he lived up
+to the assertion, and warned people to make way for me if they
+did not want to be bitten and go mad, too;  so as a general rule
+I received a pretty wide berth.  But it was fun, in spite of
+Suliman.  It was like seeing the world through a peep-hole.  Men
+and women you knew went by without suspecting they were
+recognized, and in a puzzling sort of way the world, that had
+been your world yesterday, seemed now to belong wholly to other
+people, while you lived in a new sphere of your own.
+
+We had to go slowly as we approached the Jaffa Gate, for the
+crowd was dense there, and a line of Sikhs was drawn across the
+gap where the street passes through the city wall.  It was the
+gap the Turks once made by tearing down the wall to let the
+Kaiser through, when he made that famous meek and humble
+pilgrimage of his.  The Sikhs were searching all comers for
+weapons, and we had to wait our turn.
+
+Outside the gate, on the left-hand as you faced it, was the usual
+line of boot-blacks--the only cheap thing left in Jerusalem--a
+motley two dozen of ex-Turkish soldiers, recently fighting the
+British gamely in the last ditch, and now blacking their boots
+with equal gusto, for rather higher pay.  Some of them still wore
+Turkish uniforms.  Two or three were redheaded and blue-eyed, and
+almost certainly descended from Scotch crusaders.  (The whole
+wide world bears witness that when the Scots went soldiering they
+were efficient in more ways than one.)
+
+The rest of the crowd were mainly peasantry with basket-loads of
+stuff for market;  but there was a liberal sprinkling among them
+of all the odds and ends of the Levant, with a Jew here and
+there, the inevitable Russian priest, and a dozen odd lots,
+of as many nationalities, whom it would have been difficult
+to classify.
+
+And there was Police Constable Bedreddin Shah.  You could not
+have missed noticing him, although I did not learn his name until
+afterwards.  He came swaggering down the Jaffa Road with all the
+bullying arrogance of the newly enlisted Arab policeman.  He
+shoved me aside, calling me a name that a drunken donkey-driver
+would hesitate to apply to a dog in the gutter.  He was on his
+way to the lock-up that stands just inside the gate, and I wished
+him a year in it.
+
+As he plunged into the crowd that checked and surged immediately
+in front of the line of Sikhs, a small man in Arab costume with
+the lower part of his face well covered by the kaffiyi,* rushed
+out from the corner behind the bootblacks and drove a long knife
+home to the hilt between the policeman's shoulder-blades.  I
+wasn't shocked.  I wasn't even sorry. [*Head-dress that hangs
+down over the shoulders.]
+
+Bedreddin Shah shrieked and fell forward.  Blood gushed from the
+wound.  The crowd surged in curiously, and then fell back before
+the advancing Sikhs.  A British officer who had heard the
+victim's cry came spurring his horse into the crowd from inside
+the gate.  In his effort to get near the victim he only added to
+the confusion.
+
+The murderer, who seemed in no particular hurry, dodged quietly
+in and out among the swarm of bewildered peasants, and in thirty
+seconds had utterly disappeared.  A minute later I saw Grim
+offering his services as interpreter and stooping over the dying
+man to try to catch the one word he was struggling to repeat.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Fourteen
+
+"Windy bellies without hearts in them."
+
+
+Djemal's coffee shop is run by a Turkish gentleman whose real
+name is Yussuf.  One name, and the shorter the better, had been
+plenty in the days when Djemal Pasha ran Jerusalem with iron
+ruthlessness, and consequent success of a certain sort.  When
+Djemal was the Turkish Governor, every proprietor of every kind
+of shop had to stand in the doorway at attention whenever Djemal
+passed, and woe betide the laggard!
+
+It would not have paid any one, in those days, to name any sort
+of shop after Djemal Pasha.  Even the provider of the rope that
+throttled the offender would have made no profit, because the
+rope would simply have been looted from the nearest store.
+The hangman would have been the nearest soldier, whose pay
+was already two years in arrears.  So Yussuf's own name done
+in Turkish characters used to stand over the door before the
+British came.
+
+It was Djemal Pasha's considered judgment that Yussuf cooked the
+best coffee in Jerusalem.  So whenever the despot was in the city
+he conferred on Yussuf the inestimable privilege of supplying him
+with coffee at odd moments, under threat of the bastinado if the
+stuff were not suitably sweet and hot.  The only money that ever
+changed hands in that connection was when the tax-gatherer came
+down on Yussuf for an extra levy, because of the added trade that
+conceivably might be expected to accrue through the advertisement
+obtained by serving such an exalted customer.  The tax-gatherer
+also threatened the bastinado;  and as the man who likes that
+punishment, or who could soften the heart of a Turkish tax
+assessor, has yet to be discovered, Yussuf invariably paid.
+
+But when Allenby conquered Palestine between bouts of trying to
+tame his Australians, and Djemal Pasha scooted hot-foot into
+exile with a two-hundred-woman harem packed in lorries at his
+rear, Yussuf remembered that old adage about better late than
+never.  He put Djemal's name on the stone arch of the narrow door
+near the foot of David Street.  He did it partly out of the
+disrespect that a small dog feels for a big one that is now on
+chain;  but he was not overlooking the business value of it.
+
+The first result was that he did quite a lot of trade with
+British officers, who came primarily because they were sick of
+eating sand and bully-beef, and drinking sand and tepid water in
+the desert.  Later they flocked there by way of paying indirect
+homage to a governor who, whatever his obvious demerits, had at
+any rate never been answered back or thwarted with impunity.
+(There was a time, after the capture of Jerusalem, when if the
+British army could have voted on it, Djemal Pasha would have been
+brought back and given a free hand.)
+
+But the officers began to discover that Yussuf was charging them
+four or five times the proper price.  The seniors objected
+promptly, and deserted, to the inexpressible delight of the
+subalterns;  but even the under-paid extravagant youths grew
+tired of extortion after a month or two, and Yussuf had to look
+elsewhere for customers.
+
+Yussuf did some thinking behind that genial Turkish mask of his.
+Competition was keen.  There are more coffee shops in Jerusalem
+than hairs on a hog's back, and the situation, down near the
+bottom of that narrow thoroughfare in the shadow of an ancient
+arch, did not lend itself to drawing crowds.
+
+But there were others in Jerusalem besides the British officers
+who yearned for Djemal's rule again;  and, unlike the irreverent
+men in khaki, they did not dare to voice their feelings in
+public.  All the old political grafters, and all the would-be new
+ones savagely resented a regime under which bribery was not
+permitted;  and, as always happens sooner or later, they began to
+show a tendency to meet in certain places, where they might talk
+violence without risk of incurring it.
+
+So Yussuf permitted a rumour to gain ground that he, too, was a
+malcontent and that the British had deserted his coffee shop for
+that reason.  He gave out that Djemal Pasha's name over the door
+stood for reaction and political intrigue.  So his place began to
+be frequented by effendis in tarboosh and semi-European clothes,
+who could chew the cud of bitterness aloud between walls that the
+crusaders had built four feet thick.  The only entrance was
+through the narrow front door, where Yussuf inspected every
+visitor before admitting him.
+
+So Yussuf's "Cafe Djemal Pasha" was the place to go to for
+politics, of the red-hot, death-and-dynamite order that would
+make Lenin and Trotsky sound like small-town sports.  But first
+you had to get by Yussuf at the door.
+
+Suliman led me by the hand down David Street, through the smelly-
+yelly moil of flies and barter, past the meat and vegetable
+stalls, beneath the crusader arches from which Jewish women
+peered through trellised windows, across three transversing lanes
+of the ancient suku,* and halted at Yussuf's door.  [*Bazaar]
+
+He rapped on it three times.  When Yussuf's wrinkled face
+appeared at last Suliman demanded to see Staff-Captain Ali Mirza.
+Yussuf's blood-shot eyes peered at me for a long time before he
+asked a question.
+
+"Atrash!--akras!--majnoon!!" [Deaf!--Dumb!--Mad!!] said Suliman.
+Describing me as mad seemed to give him particular delight.  He never
+overlooked a chance of doing it.
+
+"Staff-Captain Ali Mirza is not here.  What should a Madman want
+with him?"
+
+"He is not very mad--only stupid.  He carries a message for
+the captain."
+
+"But the captain is not here.  He has not been here."
+
+"He will come."
+
+"How should a deaf-and-dumb man deliver a message?"
+
+"It is in writing."
+
+"Very well.  He may leave the writing with me.  If the captain
+comes I will deliver it."
+
+"No. The message is from Esh-Sham (Damascus).  He will give it
+only into the captain's own hand."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Suliman."
+
+"What is his?"
+
+"God knows!  He came with another man by train;  and the other
+man, who is much more mad than this one, gave me five piastres to
+bring this one to your kahwi!"  [Coffe-pot]
+
+Yussuf shut the door, and discussed the proposition with his
+customers.  At the end of two or three minutes his head
+appeared again.
+
+"You say Staff-Captain Ali Mirza is expected here?"
+
+"So said the man at the station."
+
+"What do you know of Staff-Captain Ali Mirza?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+Once more the door closed and I could hear the murmur of
+voices inside--but only a confused murmur, for the door was
+thick.  When it opened again two other heads were peering
+from behind Yussuf's.
+
+"Has he money?" he asked.
+
+"Kif?  Ma indi khabar!" [How should I know?]
+
+Yussuf opened the door wide and made a sign for me to enter.  He
+seemed in two minds whether to let Suliman come in with me or
+not, but finally admitted him with a gruff admonition to keep
+still in one place and not talk.
+
+The place was fairly full.  It was a square room, with one window
+high in the wall on David Street.  Around three sides, including
+that on which was the front door, ran a wooden seat furnished
+with thin cushions.  Facing the front door was another one
+leading to a dark hole in the rear, where pots were washed and
+rice was boiled;  beside that door, occupying most of the length
+of the fourth wall, was a thing like an altar of dressed stone,
+on which the coffee was prepared in dozens of little copper pots.
+
+The benches being pretty well occupied, I was about to squat down
+on the floor, but they made room for me close to the front door,
+so I squatted on the corner of the bench and tucked my legs under
+me.  Suliman dropped down on the floor in front of me with his
+head about level with my knees.
+
+The other occupants of the room were all Syrian Arabs--not a
+Bedouin among them.  All of them wore more or less European
+clothing, with the inevitable tarboosh, each set at a different
+angle.  You can guess the mentality of the Syrian by the angle of
+that red Islamic symbol he wears on his head.  The black tassel
+normally hangs behind, and the steady-going conservatives and all
+who take their religion seriously, wear the inverted flower-pot-
+shaped affair as nearly straight up as the cranium permits.
+
+But once let a Syrian take up new politics, join the Young Turk
+Party, forswear religion, or grow cynical about accepted
+doctrine, and the angle of his tarboosh shows it, just as surely
+as the angle of the London Cockney's "bowler" betrays irreverence
+and the New York gangster's "lid" expresses self-contempt
+disguised as self-esteem.
+
+The head-gears were set at every possible angle in that coffee-
+shop of Yussuf's, from the backward tilt of the breezy optimist
+to the far-forward thrust down over the eye of malignant
+cynicism, which usually went with folded arms, legs thrust out
+straight, and heels together on the floor.
+
+Yussuf brought me coffee without waiting to be asked.  I paid him
+a half-piastre for it, which is half the proper price, and
+utterly ignored his expostulation.  He touched me on the
+shoulder, displayed the coin in the palm of his hand and went
+through a prodigious pantomime.  I did not even try to appear
+interested.  He ordered Suliman to explain to me.
+
+"Mafish mukhkh!" said the boy, touching his own forehead.
+
+My real motive was to act as differently as possible from the
+white man, who always pays twice what he should.  By establishing
+the suggestion of accustomed meanness, I hoped to offset any
+breaks I might make presently.  Spies, and people of that kind,
+usually have plenty of money for their needs, so that by acting
+the part of a man unused to spending except in minute driblets I
+stood a better chance of not being detected.
+
+But I was in luck.  I have often noticed, so that it has become
+almost an article of creed with me, that luck invariably breaks
+that way.  It almost never turns up blind.  You sit down and wait
+for luck, and it all goes to the other fellow.  But start to use
+your wits, even clumsily, and the luck comes along and squanders
+itself on you.
+
+"He is certainly from Damascus," laughed one of the customers.
+"The price is a half-piastre in Damascus at the meaner shops."
+
+I did not know anything about Damascus then--had never been
+there;  but from that minute it never entered the mind of one of
+those men to doubt that Damascus was my home-city, so easily
+satisfied by trifling suggestions is the unscientific human.
+Yussuf went back to his charcoal stove grumbling to himself
+in Turkish.
+
+But there was still one question in doubt.  They seemed satisfied
+that I was really deaf and dumb, but in that land of countless
+mission schools and alien speech there is always a chance that
+even children know a word or two of French.  They tested Suliman
+with simple questions, such as who was his mother and where was
+he born;  but he did not need to act that part, he was utterly
+ignorant of French.
+
+So they proceeded to ignore the two of us and turn their
+political acrimony loose in French, discussing the maddest, most
+unmoral schemes with the gusto of small boys playing pirates.
+There seemed to be almost as many rival political parties as men
+in the room.  The only approach to unity was when they agreed to
+accuse and destroy.  As for constructive agreement, they had
+none, and every one's suggestion for improvement was sneered at
+by all the rest.  They were not even agreed about the Zionists,
+except hating them;  they quarreled about what would be the
+best way to take advantage of them before wiping them out
+of existence.
+
+But they all saw exquisite humour in the item of news that
+Eisernstein had taken so to heart.
+
+"That was Noureddin Ali's idea!  He is a genius!  To accuse the
+Zionists of offering two million pounds for the Dome of the
+Rock--ah! who else could have thought of it!  The story has spread
+all through Jerusalem, and is on its way to the villages.  In two
+days it will be common gossip from Damascus to Beersheba.  In a
+week it will be known from end to end of Egypt;  then Arabia;
+then India!  Ho!  When the Indian Moslems get the news--the
+Indian troops in Palestine will send it by mail--then what a
+furor!  Then what anger!  That was finesse!  That was true
+statesmanship!  Never was a shrewder genius than Noureddin Ali!"
+
+"Don't shout his name too loud," said somebody.  "The
+Administration suspects him already."
+
+"Bah!  Who in this room is a friend of the Administration?  The
+Administrator is a broken shard;  the British will summon him
+home for inefficiency.  Besides, there is only one man in
+Jerusalem of whom Noureddin is in the least afraid--that Major
+Grim, the American.  And whoever would give the price of a cup of
+coffee for a lease of the life of Major Grim in the circumstances
+would do better to toss the money to the first beggar he meets!"
+
+"Hssh!"
+
+"Hah!  All the same, I would not choose to be Noureddin's enemy."
+
+"There is another one who will share that opinion--or so I have
+heard.  I was told that Bedreddin Shah, a recent recruit in the
+police, stumbled by accident on certain evidence and demanded a
+huge sum for silence.  Hee-hee!  How much will anybody give
+Bedreddin Shah for his prospect?"
+
+"Hssh!"
+
+"What did Bedreddin Shah discover?"
+
+"Nobody knows."
+
+"You mean nobody will tell."
+
+"The same thing."
+
+"How long could a secret be kept in Jerusalem, if you people were
+informed of what is going on?  You are good for propaganda, that
+is all!  You can talk--Allah! how you all talk!  But as for doing
+anything, or keeping a secret until a thing is done, you are no
+better than magpies."
+
+The last speaker was a rather fat man, over in the corner by the
+scullery door.  He had a nose like Sultan Abdul Hamid's and
+large, elongated eyes that looked capable of seeing things on
+either side of him while he stared straight forward.  Even in
+that dark corner you could see they had the alligator-hue that
+one associates with cruelty.  He had the massive shoulders and
+forward-stooping position as he sat cross-legged on the seat that
+suggest deliberate purpose devoid of hurry.
+
+They all resented what he said, but none seemed disposed to
+quarrel with him.  One or two remonstrated mildly, but he ignored
+their remarks, busying himself with digging out a cigarette from
+a gold case set with jewels;  after he had lighted it very
+thoughtfully and examined the end once or twice to make sure that
+it burned just right, he let it hang between his lips in a way
+that accentuated the angle of his bulbous nose.  You wondered
+whether he owned a harem, and what the ladies thought of him.
+
+"Will you sit and brag in here all day?" he asked after a few
+minutes.  "Yussuf must be getting rich, you sip so much coffee.
+It is not particularly good for Yussuf to get rich;  it will make
+him lazy, as most of you are."
+
+The chattering had ceased, although there were several attempts
+to break that uncomfortable silence with inane remarks.  His
+ravenish, unpleasant voice seemed to act on the company like a
+chill wind, depriving treason of its warm sociableness but
+leaving in the sting.
+
+"I said you are good for propaganda," he resumed, tossing away
+ash with a reflective air.  "But even that has no value within
+four walls.  If Noureddin Ali should come and learn from me how
+much talking has been done in here, and how little done outside,
+I can imagine he will not be pleased.  Are there no other
+kahawi?*  Why is that story about the Zionists and their offer to
+buy the Dome of Rock not being spread diligently?  You like the
+safety of this place with its four thick walls.  But I tell you
+the jackal has to leave his hole to hunt." [*Coffee-shops]
+
+They did not like taking orders, even when they were expressed
+more or less indirectly;  no follower of the new political
+freedom does like it, for it rather upsets the new conceit.  But
+he evidently knew his politicians, and they him.  They got up one
+by one and made for the door, each offering a different excuse
+designed to cover up obedience under a cloak of snappy independence.
+Not one of them drew a retort from him, or as much as a farewell nod.
+
+When the last one was gone, and the process took up all of half-
+an-hour, he sat and looked down his nose at me for several
+minutes without speaking.  You could have guessed just as easily
+what an alligator was thinking about, and I tried to emulate him,
+pretending to go off into the brown study that the Turks call
+kaif, out of which it is considered bad manners to disturb your
+best friend, let alone a stranger.  But manners proved to be no
+barrier in his case.
+
+He began talking to me in Arabic--directly at me, slowly and
+deliberately, but I did not understand very much of it and it was
+not difficult to pretend I did not hear.  However, Suliman was in
+different case;  the boy began to get very restless under the
+monolog, and I tugged at his back hair more than once to remind
+him of the part he had to play.
+
+Discovering that the Arabic took no effect on me, the alligator
+person changed to French.
+
+"They speak French in Damascus.  I know you are not deaf.  You
+are a spy.  I know your name.  I know what your business was
+before you came here.  I know why you want to see the staff-
+captain.  You have a letter for him;  I know what is in it.   No
+use trying to deceive me;  I have ways of my own of discovering
+things.  Do you know what happens to spies who refuse to answer
+my questions?  They are attended to.  Quite simple.  They receive
+attention.  Nobody hears of them again.
+
+"There are drains in Jerusalem--big, dark, smelly, ancient, full
+of rats--very useful drains.  You think the Staff-Captain Ali
+Mirza will protect you.  At a word from me he will make the
+request that you receive immediate attention.  You will disappear
+down a drain, where even Allah will forget that you ever existed.
+Staff-Captain Ali Mirza is my old friend.  Better let me see
+that letter."
+
+I felt like laughing at the drain threats although Suliman was
+still shivering from the effect of the earlier Arabic version.
+But the statement that he knew the real Ali Mirza might be true,
+in which case Grim's disguise was not going to last long.
+However, the fact that he had not yet seen through my disguise
+was some comfort.  The wish being father of the thought, I
+decided he was bluffing first and last.  But he had not finished
+yet.  He tried me in English.
+
+"The captain will give that letter to me in any case.  It is
+intended for me.  I have other business now, and wish to save
+time, so give it to me at once.  Here, I will give you ten
+piastres for it."
+
+He pulled out a purse and unfolded a ten-piastre note.  I took no
+notice.  He shook it for me to see, and I awoke like a pelican at
+the sight of fish.
+
+"Yours for that letter," he said, shaking it again.
+
+I nudged Suliman and nodded to him.  He crossed the room, seized
+the ten-piastre note, and brought it back to me.  I stowed it
+away under my shirt.
+
+"Come, now give me the letter."
+
+I took utterly no notice, so he turned his attention to Suliman
+again, and resumed in Arabic.
+
+"Feel in his pocket and find the letter."
+
+"I'm afraid," the boy answered.
+
+"Of what?  Of him?  I will protect you.  Take the letter from
+him."
+
+Suliman chose to play the small boy, as he could very well indeed
+when nothing could be gained by being devilish and ultra-grown-
+up.  He shook his head and grinned sheepishly.
+
+"Has he any weapons?" was the next question.
+
+"Ma indi khabar." [I don't know.]
+
+Evidently assault and battery was to be the next item on the
+program.  He had not the eyes or the general air of a man who
+will part with ten piastres for nothing.  He called to Yussuf,
+who came hurrying out of the scullery place.  They held a
+whispered conference, and Yussuf nodded;  then he came over to
+the front door and locked it, removing the key.
+
+"Tell him to hand over that letter!" he ordered Suliman.
+
+"Mafish mukhkh!" said the boy, tapping his forehead once more.
+
+Suliman's notion was the right one after all--at any rate the
+only one available.  Old alligator rolled off his perch and
+started for me.  Yussuf timed his own assault to correspond.
+They would have landed on me simultaneously, if Suliman had not
+reminded me that madness is a safe passport nearly anywhere in
+the East.
+
+So I went stark, raving mad that minute.  I once spent a night in
+the room of an epileptic who had delirium tremens, and learned a
+lot from him;  some of it came to mind just when I needed it.  If
+ever a man got ten piastres' worth of unexpected side-show it was
+that old Syrian with the alligator eyes.  By the time I was quite
+out of breath there wasn't a cushion or a coffee-pot fit for
+business.  Suliman was standing out of reach on the bench in a
+corner yelling with laughter, while the two men struggled to get
+through the scullery door, which was too narrow to admit them
+both at once.  I earned that ten piastres.  By the same token
+I did not let the kaffiyi fall off my head and betray my
+western origin.
+
+Unable to think up any more original motions, and having breath
+for none, I sat on the floor and spat repeatedly, having seen a
+madman do that on the Hebron Road and get feared, if not
+respected for it.  There seems to be a theory prevalent in that
+part of the world that the sputum of a madman is contagious.
+
+But I overdid it.  Most amateurs do overdo things.
+
+They got so afraid that they decided to put me out into the
+street at all costs, where those enemies of society, the police,
+might demonstrate their ingenuity.  Yussuf made a dash for the
+front door, and I suppose he would have called in help and ended
+my share in the adventure, if something had not happened.
+
+The "something" was Noureddin Ali very much something in his
+own opinion.
+
+"Why didn't you open the door sooner?" he demanded.  "I have been
+knocking for two minutes."
+
+He watched Yussuf lock the door again behind him, and then eyed
+the disheveled room with amused curiosity.  He was a rat-faced
+little man dressed in a black silk jacket, worsted pants and
+brown boots, with the inevitable tarboosh set at an angle of
+sheer impudence--a man at least fifty years old by the look of
+him, but full of that peppery vigor that so often clings to
+little men in middle life.  On the whole he looked more like a
+school-teacher, or a lawyer then a conspirator;  but Yussuf
+addressed him with great deference as "Noureddin Ali Bey," and
+even old alligator-eyes became obsequious.
+
+Both Yussuf and the other man began explaining the situation to
+him in rapid-fire Arabic.  I, meanwhile, recovering from the fit
+as fast as I dared and trying to remember how to do it.
+Noureddin Ali was plainly for having me thrown out, until they
+mentioned the name of Staff-Captain Ali Mirza;  at that he tried
+to cross-examine Suliman at great length, but could get nothing
+out of him.  Suliman had evidently overheard Grim talking about
+Noureddin Ali, and was very much afraid of him.
+
+"All right," Noureddin Ali said at last.  "No more business
+today, Yussuf.  Keep the door locked, but admit the captain.  We
+must find out what this message is about."
+
+Yussuf went to tidying up the place, while Noureddin Ali and the
+alligator person talked excitedly in low tones in the corner near
+the scullery door.  I lay on the floor with one eye open,
+expecting Grim every minute;  but it must have been four in the
+afternoon before he came, and all that while, with only short
+intervals for food and coffee, Noureddin Ali and the other man
+talked steadily, discussing over and over again the details of
+some plan.
+
+Shortly after midday Suliman began to whimper for food.  Yussuf
+produced a mess of rice and mutton, of which the two Syrians ate
+enormously before giving any to the boy;  then they put what was
+left in the dish on the floor in front of me, pretty much in the
+way you feed a dog, and I hate to remember what I did to it.
+It is enough that I did not overlook Grim's advice to eat
+like a lunatic, and however suspicious of me Noureddin Ali
+might otherwise have been he was satisfied at the end of
+that performance.
+
+Several people tried the door, and some of them made signals on
+it but Yussuf had a peep-hole where one of the heavy iron nails
+had been removed, and after a cautious squint through it at each
+arrival he proceeded to ignore them.  One man thundered on the
+door for several minutes, but was allowed to go away without as
+much as a word of explanation.
+
+That was the first incident that made me feel quite sure
+Nourreddin Ali was in fear of the police.  All the time the
+thundering was going on he glanced furtively about him like a rat
+in a trap.  I saw him feel for a weapon under his arm-pit.  When
+the noise ceased and the impatient visitor went away he sighed
+with relief.  The place was certainly a trap;  there was no back
+way out of it.
+
+When Grim came at last he knocked quietly, and waited in silence
+while Yussuf applied his eye to the nail-hole.  When he entered,
+the only surprising thing about him seemed to me the thinness of
+his disguise.  In the morning, when I had seen him change in ten
+minutes from West to East, it had seemed perfect;  but, having
+looked for him so long with the Syrian disguise in mind, it
+seemed impossible now that any one could be deceived by it.  He
+was at no pains to keep the kaffiyi thing close to his face,
+and I held my breath, expecting to see Noureddin Ali denounce
+him instantly.
+
+But nothing of that sort happened.  Grim sat down, thrust his
+legs out in front of him, leaned back and called for coffee.  It
+was obvious at once that the alligator person had been lying when
+he boasted of knowing Staff-Captain Ali Mirza, for he made no
+effort to claim acquaintance or to denounce him as an impostor.
+But he nodded to Suliman, and Suliman came over and nudged me.
+
+I let the boy go through a lot of pantomimic argument before
+admitting that I understood, but finally I crossed the room to
+Grim and offered him the envelope.  He looked surprised, examined
+the outside curiously, spoke to me, shrugged his shoulders when I
+did not answer, tossed a question or two to Suliman, shrugged
+again and tore the letter open.  Then his face changed, and he
+glanced to right and left of him as if afraid of being seen.  He
+stuffed the letter into his tunic pocket and I went back to the
+corner by the front door.
+
+Yussuf was pottering about, still rearranging all the pots and
+furniture that I had scattered, but his big ears projected
+sidewise and suggested that he might have another motive.
+However, it was a simple matter to evade his curiosity by talking
+French, and Noureddin All could contain himself no longer.
+
+"Pardon me, sir?  Staff-Captain Ali Mirza?"
+
+Grim nodded suspiciously.
+
+"I have heard of you.  We have all heard of you.  We are proud to
+see you in Jerusalem.  We wish all success to your efforts on
+behalf of Mustapha Kemal, the great Turkish Nationalist leader.
+Our prayer is that he may light such a fire in Anatolia as shall
+spread in one vast conflagration throughout the East!"
+
+"Who are you?" asked Grim suspiciously.  (Evidently the real Ali
+Mirza had a reputation for gruff manners.)
+
+"Noureddin Ali Bey.  It may be you have heard of me.  I am not
+without friends in Damascus."
+
+"Oh, are you Noureddin Ali?" Grim's attitude thawed appreciably.
+"We have been looking for more action and less talk from you.  I
+made an excuse to visit Jerusalem and discover how much fire
+there is under this smoke of boasting."
+
+"Fire!  Ha-ha!  That is the right word!  There is a camouflage of
+talk, but under it--Aha!  You shall see!"
+
+"Or is that more talk?"
+
+"We are not all talkers.  Wait and see!"
+
+"Oh, more waiting?  Has Mustapha Kemal Pasha waited in Anatolia?
+Has he not set you all an example of deeds without words?  Am I
+to wait here indefinitely in Jerusalem to take him news of deeds
+that will never happen?"
+
+"Not indefinitely, my dear captain!  And this time there will
+really be a deed that will please even such a rigorous lover of
+action as Mustapha Kemal!"
+
+Grim shrugged his shoulders again.
+
+"I leave for Damascus at dawn," he said cynically.  "I don't care
+to be mocked there for bringing news of promises.  We have had
+too many of those barren mares.  I shall say that I have found
+everything here is sterile--the talk abortive--the men mere windy
+bellies without hearts in them!"
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Fifteen
+
+"I'll have nothing to do with it!"
+
+
+Noureddin Ali was pained and upset.  Grim had pricked his
+conceit--had sent thrust home where he kept his susceptibilities.
+He blinked, peered this and that way, exchanged glances with the
+alligator person, and then tucked his legs up under him.
+
+"In me you see a doer!" he announced.  He looked the part.  His
+lean, pointed nose and beady little eyes were of the interfering,
+meddling type.  You could not imagine him, like the yellow-eyed
+ruminant next to him, sitting and waiting ruthlessly for things
+to happen.  Noureddin Ali looked more likely to go out and
+be ruthless.
+
+"So they all say!" Grim retorted.
+
+"Some one should forewarn them in Damascus what a deed will occur
+here presently.  Above all, word should reach Mustapha Kemal, in
+Anatolia, as soon as possible, so that he may be ready to act."
+
+"All day long," said Grim, "I have wandered about Jerusalem,
+listening to this and that rumour of something that may happen.
+But I have not found one man who can tell me a fact."
+
+"That is because you did not meet me.  I am--hee-hee!  I am the
+father of facts.  You say you leave for Damascus at dawn?  You
+are positive?  I could tell you facts that would put a sudden end
+to my career if they were spread about Jerusalem!"
+
+"That is the usual boast of men who desire credit in the eyes of
+the Nationalist Party," Grim retorted.
+
+"I see you are skeptical.  That is a wise man's attitude, but I
+must be cautious, for my life is at stake.  Now--how do you
+propose to leave Jerusalem?  There is no train for Damascus at
+dawn tomorrow."
+
+"I am on a diplomatic mission," answered Grim.  "The
+Administration have placed a car at my disposal to take me as far
+as the border."
+
+"Ah!  And tonight?  Where will you be tonight?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I propose to make a disclosure.  And--ah--hee-hee!--you
+would like to live, I take it, and not be sent back to Damascus
+in a coffin?  I have--ah--some assistants who--hee-hee!--would
+watch your movements.  If you were to betray me afterwards to the
+Administration, there would remain at least--the satisfaction--
+of--you understand me?--the certainty that you would suffer
+for it!"
+
+Grim laughed dryly.
+
+"I shall be at the hotel," he answered.  "In bed.  Asleep.  The
+car comes before dawn."
+
+"That is sufficient.  I shall know how to take essential
+precautions.  Now--you think I am a man of words, not deeds?  You
+were near the Jaffa Gate this morning, for I saw you there.  You
+saw a man killed--a policeman, name Bedreddin.  That was an
+unwise underling, who stumbled by accident on a clue to what I
+shall tell you presently.  He had the impudence to try to
+blackmail me--me, of all people!  You saw him killed.  But did
+you see who killed him?  I--I killed him, with this right hand!
+You do not believe?  You think, perhaps, I lack the strength for
+such a blow?  Look here, where the force of it broke my skin on
+the handle of the knife!  Now, am I a man of words, not deeds?"
+
+"You want me to report to Mustapha Kemal that all the
+accomplishment in Jerusalem amounts to one policeman killed?"
+
+"No, no!  You mistake my meaning.  My point is that having proved
+to you I am a ruthless man of action, I am entitled to be
+believed when I tell you what next I intend to do."
+
+"Well--I  listen."
+
+"There is going to be--hee-hee!--an explosion!"
+
+"Where?  When?  Of what?"
+
+"In Jerusalem, within a day or two, and of what?  Why, of high
+explosive, what else?"
+
+"Much good an explosion in this city will do Mustapha Kemal!"
+Grim grumbled.  "You may kill a few beggars and break some
+windows.  The British will double the guards afterward at all the
+city gates, and that will be the end of it;  except that some of
+you, who perhaps may escape being thrown into jail, will apply to
+Mustapha Kemal for high commissions in his army on the strength
+of it!  Great doings!  Mustapha Kemal will have no bastinadoed."
+
+"Hee-hee!  You are going to be surprised.  What would you say to
+an explosion, for instance, that destroyed the Dome of the Rock?"
+
+"That might accomplish results."
+
+"Hee-hee!  You admit it!  An explosion to be blamed on the
+Zionists, who must afterward be protected by the British from the
+mob!  Would that not set India on fire?"
+
+"It might help.  But who is to do it?"
+
+"You see the doer before you!  I will do it."
+
+"If I thought such a thing was really going to take place--"
+
+"You would think that news worth carrying, eh?  You would hurry
+to Damascus, wouldn't you?  And let me assure you, my dear
+captain, speed is essential.  There are reasons why the explosion
+has not yet occurred--reasons of detail and difficulties to be
+overcome.  But now there is little further prospect of delay.
+Everything is nearly ready.  The explosive is not yet in place,
+but is at hand.  The authorities suspect nothing.  There remains
+only a little excavation work, and then--hee-hee!--nothing to do
+but choose the hour when hundreds are in the mosque.  Houp-la!
+Up she goes.  Does not the idea appeal to you?"
+
+"Sensational--very," Grim admitted.
+
+"Ah!  But the utmost must be made of the sensation.  Men must be
+ready in Damascus to stir public feeling on the strength of it.
+Word must go to Mustapha Kemal to strike hard while the iron is
+hot.  There must be reprisals everywhere.  Blood must flow.
+
+"The Europeans, French as well as British, must be goaded into
+making rash mistakes that will further inflame the populace.  It
+must be shouted from the house-tops that the Jews have blown up a
+Moslem sacred place, and that the British are protecting them.
+There must be a true jihad* proclaimed against all non-Moslems
+almost simultaneously everywhere.  Do you understand now how
+swiftly you must travel to Damascus?" [*Holy war.]
+
+Grim nodded.  "Yet these foreigners are cunning," he said
+doubtfully.  "Are you sure your plan is not suspected?"
+
+"Quite sure.  There was one man--a cursed interfering jackanapes
+of an American, whom they all call Jimgrim, of whom I was afraid.
+He is clever.  He goes snooping here and there, and knows how to
+disguise himself.  But he fell downstairs this morning and broke
+his thigh in two places.  If anything could make me religious,
+that would!  If I were not a nationalist, I would say 'Glory
+to God, and blessed be His Prophet, who has smitten him whom
+we feared!"'
+
+"That broken leg might be a trick to put you off your guard,"
+Grim suggested pleasantly.
+
+"No.  I made secret enquiries.  He is in great pain.  He may lose
+the leg.  The doctor who has charge of the case is a Major
+Templeton, an irritable person and, like most of the English, too
+big a fool to deceive anybody.  No, luckily for Mister Jimgrim it
+is not a trick.  Otherwise he would have shared the fate today of
+Bedreddin Shah the constable.  The trap was all ready for him.
+With the inquisitive and really clever out of the way there is
+nothing to be feared.  Now--pardon me, Captain Ali Mirza, but
+that letter you received just now;  would you like to show it
+to me?"
+
+"Why?" Grim demanded, frowning, and bridling all over.
+
+"Hee-hee!  For the sake of reciprocity.  I have told you my
+secret.  If it were not that I am more than usually circumspect,
+and accustomed to protect myself, one might say that my life is
+now in your hands, captain.  Besides--hee-hee!--I might add that
+Jerusalem is my particular domain.  I would have no difficulty in
+seeing that letter in any case.  But there should be no need for
+--hee-hee!--shall we call them measures?--between friends."
+
+"I see you are a man of resource," said Grim.
+
+"Of great resource, with picked lieutenants.  May I see the
+letter now?"
+
+Grim produced it.  Noureddin Ali took it between spidery fingers
+and examined it like a schoolmaster conning a boy's composition.
+But the expression of his face changed as he took in the
+contents, holding the paper so that alligator-eyes could read
+it, too.
+
+"Who wrote this?" he asked.
+
+"Can't you read the signature?  Enver Eyub."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"One of Mustapha Kemal's staff."
+
+"So.  'In pursuing your mission you will also take steps to
+ascertain whether or not Noureddin Ali Bey is a person worthy of
+confidence.'  Aha!  That is excellent!  So Mustapha Kemal Pasha
+has heard of me?"
+
+Grim nodded.
+
+"And the rest of your mission?"
+
+"Is confidential."
+
+"And are you satisfied that I am to be trusted?"
+
+"I think you mean business."
+
+"Then you should tell me what is the nature of your secret
+mission to Jerusalem.  Possibly I can give you needed information.
+If you have obtained information of value, you should confide in
+me.  I can be most useful when I know most."
+
+Grim frowned.  He began to look uneasy.  And the more he did that,
+the more delight Noureddin Ali seemed to take in questioning him,
+but be pleaded his own case, too.
+
+"The trouble with the Nationalist movement," he insisted, "is
+lack of unity.  There is no mutual confidence--consequently no
+combination.  There are too many intellects working at cross
+purposes.  You should tell me what is being done, so that I may
+fit in my plans accordingly.  When the Dome of the Rock has been
+blown up there will be ample opportunity for putting into
+execution a combined plan.  You must confide in me."
+
+"Suppose I get rid of that messenger and the boy first,"
+Grim suggested.
+
+Grim felt in his pocket and produced a purse full of bank notes.
+But they were all big ones.
+
+"Never mind, I have change," said Noureddin Ali.  "How much will
+you give him?"
+
+"No," said Grim.  "The boy can take him to the hotel.  Let him
+wait for me there.  He has no further business here.  He should
+return to Damascus.  He had better travel with me in the car
+tomorrow morning.  Take him to the hotel, and wait for me there,
+you," he added in Arabic to Suliman.
+
+Yussuf came and opened the door.  Suliman took my hand and led me
+out.  The door slammed shut behind me, and a great Sikh, leaning
+on his rifle at a corner thirty feet away, came to life just
+sufficiently to follow me up-street with curious brown eyes.
+
+"That is Narayan Singh," announced Suliman when we had passed
+him.  "He is Jimgrim's friend."
+
+There was another Sikh just in sight of him at the next corner,
+and another beyond him again, all looking rather bored but
+awfully capable.  None except the first one took the slightest
+notice of us.
+
+It was some consolation to know that "Jimgrim's friend" was on
+guard outside Yussuf's.  I had no means of knowing what weapons
+Grim carried, if any, but was positive of one thing:  if either
+Noureddin Ali or the man with alligator eyes should get an
+inkling of his real identity his life would not be worth ten
+minutes' purchase.  Including Yussuf, who would likely do as he
+was told, there would be three to one between those silent walls,
+and it seemed to me that Narayan Singh might as well be three
+miles away as thirty feet.  However, there was nothing I could do
+about it.
+
+It was late afternoon already, and the crowd was swarming all one
+way, the women carrying the baskets and the men lording it near
+enough to keep an eye on them.  If Suliman and I were followed,
+whoever had that job had his work cut out, for we were swallowed
+up in a noisy stream of home-going villagers, whose baskets and
+other burdens made an effectual screen behind us as well as
+in front.
+
+The hotel stands close by the Jaffa Gate, and there the crowd was
+densest, for the outgoing swarm was met by another tide, of city-
+folk returning.  In the mouth of the hotel arcade stood an
+officer whom I knew well enough by sight--Colonel Goodenough,
+commander of the Sikhs, a quiet, gray little man with a monocle,
+and that air of knowing his own mind that is the real key to
+control of Indian troops.  Up a side-street there were a dozen
+troop-horses standing, and a British subaltern was making himself
+as inconspicuous as he could in the doorway of a store.  It did
+not need much discernment to judge that those in authority were
+ready to deal swiftly with any kind of trouble.
+
+But the only glimpse I had of any mob-spirit stirring was when
+three obvious Zionist Jews were rather roughly hustled by some
+Hebron men, who pride themselves on their willingness to brawl
+with any one.  Two Sikhs interfered at once, and Goodenough, who
+was watching, never batted an eyelash.
+
+I was tired, wanted a whiskey and soda and a bath more than
+anything else I could imagine at the moment.  I was eager to get
+to my room in the hotel.  Suliman, being not much more than a
+baby after all, wanted to go to sleep.  We went past Goodenough,
+who eyed me sharply but took no further notice, and we entered
+the hotel door.  But there we were met by Cerberus in the shape
+of an Arab porter, who cursed our religion and ordered us out
+again, threatening violence if we did not make haste.
+
+Suliman argued with him in vain, and even whimpered.  There was
+nothing for it but to return to the arcade, where I sat down on a
+step, from which a native policeman drove me away officiously.  I
+had about made up my mind to go and speak to Goodenough in
+English, when Grim appeared.  Not even Goodenough recognized him,
+his Syrian stride was so well acted.  He saluted, and the salute
+was returned punctiliously but with that reserve toward a
+foreigner that the Englishman puts on unconsciously.  When Grim
+spoke to him in Arabic Goodenough answered in the same language.
+I did not hear what was said at first, but as I drew closer I
+heard the sequel, for Grim changed suddenly to English.
+
+"If you can't recognize me through that magnifying-glass of
+yours, colonel, I must be one leopard who can really change his
+spots.  I'm Grim.  Don't change your expression.  Quick:  look
+around and tell me if I'm followed."
+
+"Hard to say.  Such a crowd here.  There's a Syrian over the way
+with a bulbous nose, who came along after you;  he's leaning with
+his back to the wall now, watching us."
+
+"He's the boy."
+
+"I see Narayan Singh has left his post.  Did you give
+him orders?"
+
+"Yes.  Told him to follow any one who followed me.  I don't want
+that fellow interfered with.  He may stay there, or more likely
+he'll call others to take his place;  they'll watch all night, if
+they're allowed to;  let them.  Wish you'd give orders they're to
+be left alone.  Then, please let Narayan Singh go off duty and
+get some sleep;  I'm going to want him all day tomorrow."
+
+"All right, Grim;  anything else?"
+
+"First opportunity, I wish you'd come to Davey's room upstairs.
+Now--long distance stuff again, sir--if any Syrian asks you about
+me, you might say I was making sure the car would come for me
+at dawn."
+
+They exchanged salutes again as one suspicious alien to another.
+Grim looked suitably surprised at sight of me, and led me and
+Suliman back to the hotel, where Suliman wanted him to wreak dire
+vengeance on the porter;  he grew sulky when he discovered that
+his influence with Grim was not sufficient for the purpose, but
+forgot it, small boy fashion, ten minutes later, when he fell
+asleep on the floor in a corner of Davey's room.
+
+Davey did not look exactly pleased to see us, although he seemed
+to like Grim personally, and was the first that day to see
+through Grim's disguise at the first glance.  Mrs. Davey, on the
+other hand, was radiant with smiles--thrilled at the prospect of
+learning secrets.  She produced drinks and pushed the armchairs
+up.  When she learned who I was, her husband could hardly keep
+her from putting on a costume too, to make a party of it.
+
+Davey was reserved.  He asked no questions.  A gray-headed, gray-
+eyed, stocky, sturdy-looking man, who had made impossibilities
+come true on three continents, he waited for trouble to come to
+him instead of seeking it.  There was silence for several minutes
+over the cigars and whiskey before Grim opened fire at last.  He
+talked straight out in front of Mrs. Davey, for she had mothered
+Cosmopolitan Oil men in a hundred out-of-the-way places.  She
+knew more sacred secrets than the Sphinx.
+
+"Any news about your oil concessions, Davey?"
+
+"No.  Not a word.  We've got every prospect in the country marked
+out.  Nothing to do now but wait for the mandate, while the
+Zionists go behind our backs to the Foreign Office and scheme for
+the concessions.  It's my belief the British mean to favor the
+Zionists and put us in the ditch.  The fact that we were first on
+the ground, and lodged our applications with the Turks before the
+war seems to make no difference in their lives."
+
+"Well, old man, I've arranged for you to change your policy,"
+said Grim.
+
+"What in thunder do you mean?"
+
+Mrs. Davey giggled with delight, but her husband
+frowned ominously.
+
+"I'm supposed to be Staff-Captain Ali Mirza of the
+Shereefian army."
+
+"I've heard of him.  He's a bad one, Jim.  He is one of those
+Syrian Arabs who will accept any one's money, but who never stays
+bought.  Why masquerade as a scoundrel?"
+
+"I was in a place just now with a bunch of murderers, who'd have
+made short work of me if I couldn't give them a sound reason for
+being in Jerusalem just now."
+
+"Why not have 'em all arrested?"
+
+"For the same reason, Davey, that your Oil Company isn't piping
+ten thousand barrels a day from Jericho.  The time is not yet.
+Things haven't reached that stage.  I told them your Oil Company
+gave up hope long ago of getting a concession from the British,
+and has decided to finance Mustapha Kemal."
+
+Davey flung his cigar out of the window, and laid both hands on
+his knees.  His face was a picture of baffled indignation.  But
+his wife laughed.
+
+"They were tickled to death," Grim continued.  "I'm supposed to
+be going to Damascus tomorrow morning with a hundred thousand
+dollars in U.S. gold, obtained from you in ten small bags.  We've
+got to find some bags and pack them full of something heavy."
+
+"I'll have nothing to do with it!" Davey exploded at last.  "It's
+a damned outrage!  Why--this tale will be all over the place.
+The Jews will get hold of it, and make complaints in London.
+Next you know, the U.S. State Department will be raising blue
+hell.  Questions asked in Congress.  Headlines in all the papers!
+What do you suppose our people will think of me?"
+
+"Refer them to your wife, Davey.  She's got you out of much
+worse messes."
+
+"I'll drive the car straight up to OETA and lodge my protest
+against this in less than fifteen minutes!"
+
+"No need;  Davey, old man.  Goodenough will be in here presently.
+Kick to him."
+
+Mrs. Davey went into the next room and returned with a roll of
+coarse cotton cloth.
+
+"I've no bags, Jim, but if this stuff will do I can sew some
+right now."
+
+"Good enough, Emily, go to it."
+
+"D'you want to lose me my job?" demanded Davey.  But his wife
+took up the scissors and smiled back at him.
+
+"You know better than that.  We've trusted Jim before."
+
+"Listen, Davey;  this thing's serious," said Grim.
+
+"I know it is!  So'm I!  Nothing doing!"
+
+"You're on the inside of an official secret."
+
+"Curse all official secrets!  My business is oil!"
+
+"There'll be no oil in this man's land for any one for fifty
+years if you won't play.  There'll be a jihad instead.  They're
+planning to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
+
+"Jee-rusalem!"
+
+"Straight goods, Davey.  Two tons of TNT stolen, and our friend
+Scharnhoff, the Austrian, hunting for the Tomb of the Kings--
+digging for it day and night--conspirators waiting to run in the
+explosive as soon as the tunnel is complete."
+
+"Why not arrest 'em at once?"
+
+"We want to catch the principals red-handed, explosive and all.
+We don't know where the explosive is yet.  Bag the lot, and kill
+the story.  Otherwise, d'you see what it means, if the news leaks
+out?  They'll blame the attempt on the Jews.  And the minute the
+British protect the Jews there'll be all Moslem Asia on fire.
+Get me?"
+
+"Get you?  Yes, I get you.  I'll get hell from the home office,
+though, for meddling in politics."
+
+Goodenough came in then, rather a different man from the stern
+little martinet who had stood in the throat of the arcade.  He
+was all smiles.
+
+"Evening, Mrs. Davey," he said genially.  "That one man went
+away, Grim, and three took his place.  They shan't be disturbed.
+Narayan Singh has gone off duty.  Now, Mrs. Davey, I've been told
+that Americans all went dry, on account of a new religion called
+the Volstead Act.  D'you mean to say you'd tempt a thirsty
+soldier with a dry martini?"
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Sixteen
+
+"The Enemy is nearly always useful if you leave him free to
+make mistakes."
+
+
+The next item on the program was to awaken Suliman.  He did not
+want to wake up.  He had lost all interest in secret service for
+the time being.  Even the sight of Mrs. Davey's New York candy
+did not stir enthusiasm;  he declared it was stuff fit for
+bints,* not men.   [*Women]
+
+"All right then," Grim announced at last.
+
+"School for you, and I'll get another side-partner."
+
+That settled it.  The boy, on whose lips the word dog was a foul
+epithet, was actually proud to share a packing-case bedroom with
+Julius Caesar the mess bull-dog.  School, where there would be
+other iniquitous small boys to be led into trouble, had no
+particular terrors.  But to lose his job and to see another boy,
+perhaps a Jew or a Christian, become Jimgrim's Jack-of-all-jobs
+was outside the pale of inflictions that pride could tolerate.
+
+"I am awake!" he retorted, rubbing his eyes to prove it.
+
+"Come here, then.  D'you know where to find your mother?"
+
+"At the place where I went yesterday."
+
+"Take her some of Mrs. Davey's candy.  Don't eat it on the way,
+mind.  Get inside the place if you can.  If she won't let you in
+try how much you can see through the door.  Ask no questions.  If
+she asks what you've been doing, tell her the truth:  say that
+you cleaned my boots and washed Julius Caesar.  Then come back
+here and tell me all you've seen."
+
+"Sending him to spy on his own mother, Jim?" asked Mrs. Davey as
+Suliman left the room with candy in both fists.  She paused from
+stitching at the cotton bags to look straight at Grim.
+
+"His mother is old Scharnhoff's housekeeper," Grim answered.
+"Scharnhoff wouldn't stand for the boy, and drove him out.  The
+mother liked Scharnhoff's flesh-pots better than the prospects of
+the streets, so she stayed on, swiping stuff from Scharnhoff's
+larder now and then to slip to the kid through the back door.
+But he was starving when I found him."
+
+Mrs. Davey laid her sewing down.
+
+"D'you  mean to tell me that that old butter-wouldn't-melt-in-
+his-mouth professor is that child's father?"
+
+"No.  The father was a Turkish soldier--went away with the
+Turkish retreat.  If he's alive he's probably with Mustapha Kemal
+in Anatolia.  Old Scharnhoff used to keep a regular harem under
+the Turks.  He got rid of them to save his face when our crowd
+took Jerusalem.  He puts up with one now.  But he has the
+thorough-going Turk's idea of married life."
+
+"And to think I had him here to tea--twice--no, three times!  I
+liked him, too!  Found him interesting."
+
+"He is," said Grim.
+
+"Very!" agreed Goodenough.
+
+"If it weren't for that harem habit of his," said Grim, "some
+acquaintances of his would have blown up the Dome of the Rock
+about this time tomorrow.  As it is, they won't get away with
+it.  Suliman came and told me one day that his mother was
+carrying food to Scharnhoff, taking it to a little house in
+a street that runs below the Haram-es-Sheriff.  I looked into
+that.  Then came news that two tons of TNT was missing, on top
+of a request from Scharnhoff for permission to go about at night
+unquestioned.  After that it was only a question of putting
+two and two together--"
+
+"Plus Narayan Singh," said Goodenough.  "I still don't see, Grim,
+how you arrived at the conclusion that Scharnhoff is not guilty
+of the main intention.  What's to prove that he isn't in the pay
+of Mustapha Kemal?"
+
+"I'll explain.  All Scharnhoff cares about is some manuscripts he
+thinks he'll find.  He thinks he knows where they are.  The
+Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.  I expect he tried pretty hard
+to get the Turks to let him excavate for them.  But the Turks
+knew better than to offend religious prejudices.  And perhaps
+Scharnhoff couldn't afford to bribe heavily enough;  his harem
+very likely kept him rather short of money.  Then we come along,
+and stop all excavation--cancel all permits--refuse to grant
+new ones.
+
+"Scharnhoff's problem is to dig without calling attention to what
+he's doing.  As a technical enemy alien he can't acquire
+property, or even rent property without permission.  But with the
+aid of Suliman's mother he made the acquaintance of our friend
+Noureddin Ali, who has a friend, who in turn has a brother, who
+owns a little house in that street below the Haram-es-Sheriff."
+
+"Strange coincidence!" said Goodenough.  "It'll need a better
+argument than that to save Scharnhoff's neck."
+
+"Pardon me, sir.  No coincidence at all.  Remember, Scharnhoff
+has lived in Jerusalem for fifteen years.  He seems to have
+satisfied himself that the Tomb of the Kings is directly under
+the Dome of the Rock.  How is he to get to it?  The Dome of the
+Rock stands in the middle of that great courtyard, with the
+buildings of the Haram-es-Sheriff surrounding it on every
+side, and hardly a stone in the foundations weighing less than
+ten tons.
+
+"He reasons it out that there must be a tunnel somewhere, leading
+to the tomb, if it really is under the Dome of the Rock.  I have
+found out that he went to work, while the Turks were still here,
+to find the mouth of the tunnel.  Remember, he's an archaeologist.
+There's very little he doesn't know about Jerusalem.  He knows
+who the owner is of every bit of property surrounding the
+Haram-es-Sheriff;  he's made it his business to find out.  So
+when he finally decided that this little stone house stands over
+the mouth of the tunnel, all that remained to do was to get
+access to it.  He couldn't do that himself, because of the
+regulations.  He had to approach the Arab owner secretly and
+indirectly.  That's where Suliman's mother came in handy.
+
+"She contrived the introduction to Noureddin Ali.  Innocent old
+Scharnhoff, who is an honest thief--he wouldn't steal money--
+sacrilege is Scharnhoff's passion--was an easy mark for Noureddin
+Ali.  Noureddin Ali is a red-minded devil, so smart at seeing
+possibilities that he is blind to probabilities.  He is paid by
+the French to make trouble, and he's the world's long-distance
+double-crosser.  I don't believe the French have any hand in this
+job.  Scharnhoff needed explosives.  Noureddin Ali saw at once
+that if that tunnel can be found and opened up there could be
+an atrocity perpetrated that would produce anarchy all through
+the East."
+
+"As bad as all that?" asked Mrs.  Davey.
+
+"That's no exaggeration," Goodenough answered.  "I've lived
+twenty-five years in India, commanding Sikh and Moslem troops.
+The Sikhs are not interested in the Moslem religion in any way,
+but they'd make common cause with Moslems if that place were
+blown up and the blame could be attached to Jews.  It's the
+second most sacred place in Asia.  Even the Hindus would be
+stirred to their depths by it;  they'd feel that their own sacred
+places were insecure, and that whoever destroyed them would be
+protected afterwards by us."
+
+"Gosh!  Who'd be an Englishman!" laughed Davey.
+
+"I don't see that it's proved yet that the idea of an explosion
+wasn't Sharnhoff's in the first place," Goodenough objected.
+
+"For one thing, he wouldn't want to destroy antiquities," said
+Grim.  "They're his obsession.  He worships ancient history and
+all its monuments.  No, Noureddin Ali thought of the explosion.
+He knew that Scharnhoff needed money, so he gave him French
+money, knowing that would put old Scharnhoff completely in his
+power.  Then he tipped off some one down at Ludd to watch for a
+chance to steal some TNT.  He had better luck than he expected.
+He got two tons of it.  He didn't have all the luck, though.
+His plan, I believe, was to time the fireworks simultaneously
+with a French-instigated raid from El-Kerak.  But the raid
+didn't come off."
+
+"Scharnhoff will hang!" said Goodenough.
+
+"I think not, sir.  He'll prove as meek as an old sheep when we
+land on him."
+
+"There, will the bags do?" asked Mrs. Davey.
+
+"What are they for?" Goodenough asked.
+
+"We're supposed to have a slush fund in this room of a hundred
+thousand dollars," Davey answered dourly.  "My Oil Company is
+supposed to be buying up Mustapha Kemal!  I see my finish, if
+news of this ever reaches the States--or unless my version of it
+gets there first!"
+
+Grim turned to me.
+
+"We've got to find two people to take your place and mine in the
+car tomorrow morning.  Perhaps you'd better go in any case;
+you'll enjoy the ride as far as Haifa--stay there a day or two,
+and come back when you feel like it.  We'll find some officer to
+masquerade as me."
+
+But there I rebelled--flat, downright mutiny.
+
+"If I haven't made good so far," I said, "I'll consider myself
+fired, and hold my tongue.  Otherwise, I see this thing through!
+Send some one else on the joy-ride."
+
+"Good for you!" said Davey.
+
+"Dammit, man!" said Goodenough, staring at me through his
+monocle.  "The rest of us get paid for taking chances.  The only
+tangible reward you can possibly get will be a knife in your
+back.  Better be sensible and take the ride to Haifa."
+
+"My bet is down," said I.
+
+"Good," Grim nodded.  "It goes.  All the same, you get a joy-
+ride.  Can't take too many chances.  Tell you about that later.
+Meanwhile, will you detail an officer to come and spend the night
+in this hotel and masquerade as me at dawn, sir?  He can wear
+this uniform that I've got on--somebody about my height."
+
+"Turner will do that.  What are you going to put in the bags?"
+asked Goodenough.
+
+"Cartridges.  They're heavy.  You might tell Turner over the
+phone to bring them with him."
+
+At that point Suliman returned, sooner than expected, with news
+that made Grim whistle.  Suliman had not been inside the place
+where his mother was.  She would not let him.  But he had seen
+around her skirts as she stood in the partly opened door.
+
+"There was a hole in the floor," said Suliman, "and a great stone
+laid beside it.  Also much gray dust.  And I think there was a
+light a long way down in the hole."
+
+But that was not what made Grim whistle.
+
+"What else?  Did your mother say anything?"
+
+"She was ill-tempered."
+
+"That Scharnhoff had beaten her."
+
+"I knew he'd make a bad break sooner or later.  What did he beat
+her for?"
+
+"Because she was afraid."
+
+"That's a fine reason.  Afraid of what?"
+
+"He says she is to sell oranges.  Four wooden benches have been
+brought, and tomorrow they are to be set outside the door in the
+street.  Oranges and raisins have been bought, and she is to sit
+outside the door and sell them.  She is afraid."
+
+"Fruit bought already?  Can't be.  Was it inside there?"
+
+"No.  It is to come tomorrow.  She says she does not know how to
+sell fruit, and is afraid of the police."
+
+Grim and Goodenough exchanged glances.
+
+"She says that if the police come everybody will be killed, and
+that I am to keep watch in the street in the morning and give
+warning of the police."
+
+"That should teach you, young man, never to take a woman into
+your confidence--eh, Mrs. Davey?" said Goodenough.
+
+"We're certainly the slow-witted sex," she answered, piling the
+finished bags one on top of the other on the table.
+
+Grim took me after that to the hotel roof, whence you can see the
+whole of Jerusalem.  It was just before moonrise.  The ancient
+city lay in shadow, with the Dome of the Rock looming above it,
+mysterious and silent.  Down below us in the street, where a
+gasoline light threw a greenish-white glare, three Arabs in
+native costume were squatting with their backs against the low
+wall facing the hotel.
+
+"Noureddin Ali's men," said Grim, chuckling.  "They'll help us to
+prove our alibi.  The enemy is nearly always useful if you leave
+him free to make mistakes.  You may have to spend the whole night
+in the mosque--you and Suliman.  I'll take you there presently.
+Two of those men are pretty sure to follow us.  One will probably
+follow me back here again.  The other will stay to keep an eye on
+you.  About an hour before dawn, in case nothing happens before
+that, you and Suliman come back here to the hotel.  The car shall
+be here half-an-hour before daylight.  You and Turner pile into
+it, and those three men watch you drive away.  They'll hurry off
+to tell Noureddin Ali that Staff-Captain Ali Mirza and the
+deaf-and-dumb man have really started for Damascus, bags of gold
+and all.
+
+"Turner must remember to drop a couple of bags and pick them up
+again, to call attention to them.  There'll be a change of
+clothes in the car for you.  When you've gone a mile or so, get
+into the other clothes and walk back.  If I don't meet you by the
+Jaffa Gate, Suliman will, or else Narayan Singh.  Things are
+liable to happen pretty fast tomorrow morning.  Let's go.
+
+"I'm supposed to have found out somehow that you're awful
+religious and want to pray, so it's the Dome of the Rock for
+yours.  Any Moslem who wants to may sleep there, you know.  But
+any Christian caught kidding them he's a Moslem would be for it--
+short shrift.  He'd be dead before the sheikh of the place could
+hand him over to the authorities.  If the TNT were really in
+place underneath you, which I'm pretty sure it won't be for a few
+hours yet, that would be lots safer than the other chance you're
+taking.  So peel your wits.  Let Suliman sleep if he wants to,
+but you'll have to keep awake all night."
+
+"But what am I to do in there?  What's likely to happen?"
+
+"Just listen.  The tunnel isn't through to the end yet, I'm sure
+of it.  If it were, they'd have taken in the TNT, for it must be
+ticklish work keeping it hidden elsewhere, with scores of Sikhs
+watching day and night.  But they're very near the end of the
+tunnel, or they wouldn't be opening up that fruit stand.  You'll
+hear them break through.  When you're absolutely sure of that,
+come out of the mosque and say Atcha--just that one word--to the
+Sikh sentry you'll see standing under the archway through which
+we'll enter the courtyard presently.  That sentry will be Narayan
+Singh, and he'll know what to do."
+
+"What shall I do after that?"
+
+"Suit yourself.  Either return to the mosque and go to sleep, if
+you can trust yourself to wake in time, or come and sit on the
+hotel step until morning.  Have you got it all clear?  It's a
+piece of good luck having you to do all this.  No real Moslem
+would ever be able to hold his tongue about it.  They're
+superstitious about the Dome of the Rock.  But ask questions now,
+if you're not clear;  you mustn't be seen speaking in the street
+or in the mosque, remember.  All plain sailing?  Come along,
+then.  If you're alive tomorrow you'll have had an adventure."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Seventeen
+
+"Poor old Scharnhoff's in the soup."
+
+
+We ate a scratch dinner with the Daveys in their room and started
+forth.  Grim as usual had his nerve with him.  He led me and
+Suliman straight up to the three spies who were squatting against
+the wall, and asked whether there were any special regulations
+that would prevent my being left for the night in the famous
+mosque.  On top of that he asked one of the men to show him the
+shortest way.  So two of them elected to come with us, walking
+just ahead, and the third man stayed where he was, presumably in
+case Noureddin Ali should send to make enquiries.
+
+You must walk through Jerusalem by night, with the moon just
+rising, if you want really to get the glamour of eastern tales
+and understand how true to life those stories are of old Haroun-
+al-Raschid.  It is almost the only city left with its ancient
+walls all standing, with its ancient streets intact.  At that
+time, in 1920, there was nothing whatever new to mar the setting.
+No new buildings.  The city was only cleaner than it was under
+the Turks.
+
+Parts of the narrow thoroughfares are roofed over with vaulted
+arches.  The domed roofs rise in unplanned, beautiful disorder
+against a sky luminous with jewels.  To right and left you can
+look through key-hole arches down shadowy, narrow ways to carved
+doors through which Knights Templar used to swagger with gold
+spurs, and that Saladin's men appropriated after them.
+
+Yellow lamplight, shining from small windows set deep in the
+massive walls, casts an occasional band of pure gold across the
+storied gloom.  Now and then a man steps out from a doorway, his
+identity concealed by flowing eastern finery, pauses for a
+moment in the light to look about him, and disappears into
+silent mystery.
+
+Half-open doors at intervals give glimpses of white interiors,
+and of men from a hundred deserts sitting on mats to smoke great
+water-pipes and talk intrigue.  There are smells that are
+stagnant with the rot of time;  other smells pungent with
+spice, and mystery, and the alluring scent of bales of
+merchandise that, like the mew of gulls, can set the mind
+traveling to lands unseen.
+
+Through other arched doors, even at night, there is a glimpse of
+blindfold camels going round and round in ancient gloom at the
+oil-press.  There are no sounds of revelry.  The Arab takes his
+pleasures stately fashion, and the Jew has learned from history
+that the safest way to enjoy life is to keep quiet about it.  Now
+and then you can hear an Arab singing a desert song, not very
+musical but utterly descriptive of the life he leads.  We
+caught the sound of a flute played wistfully in an upper room
+by some Jew returned from the West to take up anew the thread
+of ancient history.
+
+Grim nudged me sharply in one shadowy place, where the street
+went down in twenty-foot-long steps between the high walls of
+windowless harems.  Another narrow street crossed ours thirty
+feet ahead of us, and our two guides were hurrying, only glancing
+back at intervals to make sure we had not given them the slip.
+The cross-street was between us and them, and as Grim nudged me
+two men--a bulky, bearded big one and one of rather less than
+middle height, both in Arab dress--passed in front of us.  There
+was no chance of being overheard, and Grim spoke in a low voice:
+
+"Do you recognize them?" "I shook my head.
+
+"Scharnhoff and Noureddin Ali!"
+
+I don't see now how he recognized them.  But I suppose a man who
+works long enough at Grim's business acquires a sixth sense.
+They were walking swiftly, arguing in low tones, much too busy
+with their own affairs to pay attention to us.  Our two guides
+glanced back a moment later, but they had vanished by then into
+the gloom of the cross-street.
+
+There was a dim lamp at one corner of that crossing.  As we
+passed through its pale circle of light I noticed a man who
+looked like an Arab lurking in the shadow just beyond it.  I
+thought he made a sign to Grim, but I did not see Grim return it.
+
+Grim watched his chance, then spoke again:
+
+"That man in the shadow is a Sikh--Narayan Singh's sidekick--
+keeping tabs on Scharnhoff.  I'll bet old Scharnhoff has cold
+feet and went to find Noureddin Ali to try and talk him out of
+it.  Might as well try to pretty-pussy a bob-cat away from a hen-
+yard!  Poor old Scharnhoff's in the soup!"
+
+Quite suddenly after that we reached a fairly wide street and the
+arched Byzantine gateway of the Haram-es-Sheriff, through which
+we could see tall cypress trees against the moonlit sky and the
+dome of the mosque beyond them.  They do say the Taj Mahal at
+Agra is a lovelier sight, and more inspiring;  but perhaps that
+is because the Taj is farther away from the folk who like to have
+opinions at second-hand.  Age, history, situation, setting,
+sanctity--the Dome of the Rock has the advantage of all those,
+and the purple sky, crowded with coloured stars beyond it is more
+wonderful over Jerusalem, because of the clearness of the
+mountain air.
+
+In that minute, and for the first time, I hated the men
+who could plot to blow up that place.  Hitherto I had been
+merely interested.
+
+Because it was long after the hour when non-Moslem visitors are
+allowed to go about the place with guides, we were submitted to
+rather careful scrutiny by men who came out of the shadows and
+said nothing, but peered into our faces.  They did not speak to
+let us by, but signified admittance by turning uninterested backs
+and retiring to some dark corners to resume the vigil.  I thought
+that the Sikh sentry, who stood with bayonet fixed outside the
+arch, looked at Grim with something more than curiosity, but no
+sign that I could detect passed between them.
+
+The great white moonlit courtyard was empty.  Not a soul stirred
+in it.  Not a shadow moved.  Because of the hour there were not
+even any guides lurking around the mosque.  The only shape that
+came to life as we approached the main entrance of the mosque was
+the man who takes care of the slippers for a small fee.
+
+Grim, since he was in military dress, allowed the attendant to
+tie on over his shoes the great straw slippers they keep there
+for that purpose.  Suliman had nothing on his feet.  I kicked off
+the red Damascus slippers I was wearing, and we entered the
+octagonal building by passing under a curtain at the rear of the
+deep, vaulted entrance.
+
+Nobody took any notice of us at first.  It was difficult to see,
+for one thing;  the light of the lamps that hung on chains from
+the arches overhead was dimmed by coloured lenses and did little
+more than beautify the gloom.  But in the dimness in the midst
+you could see the rock of Abraham, surrounded by a railing to
+preserve it from profane feet.  Little by little the shadows took
+shape of men praying, or sleeping, or conversing in low tones.
+
+The place was not crowded.  There were perhaps a hundred men in
+there, some of whom doubtless intended to spend the night.  All
+of them, though they gave us a cursory glance, seemed disposed to
+mind their own business.  It looked for a minute as if we were
+going to remain in there unquestioned.  But the two spies who had
+come with us saw a chance to confirm or else disprove our bona
+fides, and while one of them stayed and watched us the other went
+to fetch the Sheikh of the Mosque.
+
+He came presently, waddling very actively for such a stout man--a
+big, burly, gray-bearded intellectual, with eyes that beamed
+intelligent good-humour through gold-rimmed glasses.  He did not
+seem at all pleased to have been disturbed, until he drew near
+enough to scan our faces.  Then his change of expression, as soon
+as he had looked once into Grim's eyes, gave me cold chills all
+down the back.  I could have sworn he was going to denounce us.
+
+Instead, he turned on the two spies.  He tongue-lashed them in
+Arabic.  I could not follow it word for word.  I gathered that
+they had hinted some suspicion as to the genuineness of Grim's
+pretension to be Staff-Captain Ali Mirza.  He was rebuking them
+for it.  They slunk away.  One went and sat near the door we had
+entered by.  The other vanished completely.
+
+"Jimgrim!  What do you do here at this hour?" asked the sheikh as
+soon as we stood alone.
+
+"Talk French," Grim answered.  "We can't afford to be overheard."
+
+"True, O Jimgrim!  It is all your life and my position is worth
+for you to be detected in here in that disguise at such an hour!
+And who are these with you?"
+
+"It is all your life and mosque are worth to turn us out!" Grim
+answered.  "When was I ever your enemy?"
+
+"Never yet, but--what does this mean?"
+
+"You shall know in the morning--you alone.  This man, who can
+neither hear nor speak, and the child with him, must stay in here
+tonight, and go when they choose, unquestioned."
+
+"Jimgrim, this is not a place for setting traps for criminals.
+Set your watch outside, and none shall interfere with you."
+
+"'Shall the heart within be cleansed by washing hands?'" Grim
+quoted, and the shiekh smiled.
+
+"Do you mean there are criminals within the mosque?  If so, this
+is sanctuary, Jimgrim.  They shall not be disturbed.  Set
+watchmen at the doors and catch them as they leave, if you will.
+This is holy ground."
+
+"There'll be none of it left to boast about this time tomorrow,
+if you choose to insist!" Grim answered.
+
+"Should there be riddles between you and me?" asked the sheikh.
+
+"You shall know all in the morning."
+
+The sheikh's face changed again, taking on a look of mingled rage
+and cunning.
+
+"I know, then, what it is!  The rumour is true that those cursed
+Zionists intend to desecrate the place.  This fellow, who you say
+is deaf and dumb, is one of your spies--is he not?  Perhaps he
+can smell a Zionist--eh?  Well, there are others!  Better tell me
+the truth, Jimgrim, and in fifteen minutes I will pack this place
+so full of true Moslems that no conspirator could worm his way
+in!  Then if the Jews start anything let them beware!"
+
+"By the beard of your Prophet," Grim answered impiously, "this
+has nothing to do with Zionists."
+
+"Neither have I, then, anything to do with this trespass.  You
+have my leave to depart at once, Jimgrim!"
+
+"After the ruin--"
+
+"There will be no ruin, Jimgrim!  I will fill the place
+with men."
+
+"Better empty it of men!  The more there are in it, the bigger
+the death-roll!  Shall I say afterwards that I begged leave to
+set a watch, and you refused?"
+
+"You--you, Jimgrim--you talk to me of ruin and a death-roll?  You
+are no every-day alarmist."
+
+"Did you ever catch me in a lie?"
+
+"No, Jimgrim.  You are too clever by far for that!  If you were
+to concoct a lie it would take ten angels to unravel it!  But--
+you speak of ruin and a death-roll, eh?"  He stroked his beard
+for about a minute.
+
+"You have heard, perhaps, that Moslems are sharpening their
+swords for a reckoning with the Jews?  There may be some truth in
+it.  But there shall be no gathering in this place for any such
+purpose, for I will see to that.  You need set no watch in here
+on that account."
+
+"The time always comes," Grim answered, "when you must trust a
+man or mistrust him.  You've known me eleven years.  What are you
+going to do?"
+
+"In the name of God, what shall I answer! Taib,* Jimgrim, I will
+trust you.  What is it you wish?"  [*All right.]
+
+"To leave this deaf-and-dumb man and the boy, below the
+Rock, undisturbed."
+
+"That cannot well be.  Occasionally others  go to pray in that
+place.  Also, there is a Moslem who has made the pilgrimage from
+Trichinopoli.  I myself have promised to show him the mosque
+tonight, because he leaves Jerusalem at dawn, and only I speak a
+language he can understand.  There will be others with him, and I
+cannot refuse to take them down below the Rock."
+
+"That is nothing," Grim answered.  "They will think nothing of a
+deaf-and-dumb man praying or sleeping in a  a corner."
+
+"Is that all he wishes to do?  He will remain still in one place?
+Then come."
+
+"One other thing.  That fellow who went and fetched you--he sits
+over there by the north door now--he will ask you questions about
+me presently.  Tell him I'm leaving for Damascus in the morning.
+If he asks what we have been speaking about so long, tell him I
+brought you the compliments of Mustapha Kemal."
+
+"I will tell him to go to jahannam!"
+
+"Better be civil to him. His hour comes tomorrow."
+
+The sheikh led the way along one side of the inner of three
+concentric parts into which the mosque is divided by rows of
+marble columns, until we came to a cavernous opening in the
+floor, where steps hewn in the naked rock led downward into a
+cave that underlies the spot on which tradition says Abraham made
+ready to sacrifice his son.
+
+It was very dark below.  Only one little oil lamp was burning, on
+a rock shaped like an altar in one corner.  It cast leaping
+shadows that looked like ghosts on the smooth, uneven walls.  The
+whole place was hardly more than twenty feet wide each way.
+There was no furniture, not even the usual mats--nothing but
+naked rock to lie or sit on, polished smooth as glass by
+centuries of naked feet.
+
+I was going to sit in a corner, but Grim seized my arm and
+pointed to the centre of the floor, stamping with his foot to
+show the exact place I should take.  It rang vaguely hollow under
+the impact, and Suliman, already frightened by the shadows,
+seized my hand in a paroxysm of terror.
+
+"You've got to prove you're a man tonight and stick it out!" Grim
+said to him in English;  and with that, rather than argue the
+point and risk a scene, he followed the sheikh up the steps and
+disappeared.  Grim's methods with Suliman were a strange mixture
+of understanding sympathy and downright indifference to sentiment
+that got him severely criticized by the know-it-all party, who
+always, everywhere condemn.  But he certainly got results.
+
+A legion of biblical and Koranic devils owned Suliman.  They were
+the child's religion.  When he dared, he spat at the name of
+Christianity.  Whenever Grim whipped him, which he had to do now
+and again, for theft or for filthy language, he used to curse
+Grim's religion, although Grim's religion was a well-kept secret,
+known to none but himself.  But the kid was loyal to Grim with a
+courage and persistence past belief, and Grim knew how to worm
+the truth out of him and make him keep his word, which is more
+than some of the professional reformers know how to do with
+their proteges.  I believe that Suliman would rather have earned
+Grim's curt praise than all the fabulous delights of even a
+Moslem paradise.
+
+But the kid was in torment.  His idea of manliness precluded any
+exhibition of fear in front of me, if he could possibly restrain
+himself.  He would not have minded breaking down in front of
+Grim, for he knew that Grim knew him inside out.  On the
+contrary, he looked down on me, as a mere amateur at the game,
+who had never starved at the Jaffa Gate, nor eaten candle-ends,
+or gambled for milliemes* with cab-drivers' sons while picking up
+odds and ends of gossip for a government that hardly knew of his
+existence.  In front of me he proposed to act the man--guide--
+showman--mentor.  He considered himself my boss.  [*The smallest
+coin of the country.]
+
+But it was stem work.  If there had been a little noise to make
+the shadows less ghostly;  if Suliman had not been full of half-
+digested superstition;  or if he had not overheard enough to be
+aware that a prodigious, secret plot was in some way connected
+with that cavern, he could have kept his courage up by swaggering
+in front of me.
+
+He nearly fell asleep, with his head in my lap, at the end of
+half-an-hour.  But when there was a sound at last he almost
+screamed.  I had to clap my hand over his mouth;  whereat he
+promptly bit my finger, resentful because he knew then that I
+knew he was afraid.
+
+It proved to be approaching footsteps--the sheikh of the mosque
+again, leading the man from Trichinopoli and a party of three
+friends.  Their rear was brought up by Noureddin;  Ali's spy,
+anxious about me, but pretending to want to overhear the sheikh's
+account of things.
+
+The sheikh reeled it all off in a cultured voice accustomed to
+using the exact amount of energy required, but even so his words
+boomed in the cavern like the forethought of thunder.  You
+couldn't help wondering whether a man of his intelligence
+believed quite all he said, however much impressed the man from
+Trichinopoli might be.
+
+"We are now beneath the very rock on which Abraham was willing to
+sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  This rock is the centre of the
+world.  Jacob anointed it.  King Solomon built his temple over
+it.  The Prophet of God, the Prince Mahommed, on whose head be
+blessings! said of this place that it is next in order of
+holiness after Mecca, and that one prayer said here is worth ten
+elsewhere.  Here, in this place, is where King Solomon used to
+kneel in prayer, and where God appeared to him.  This corner is
+where David prayed.  Here prayed Mahommed.
+
+"Look up.  This hollow in the roof is over the spot where the
+Prophet Mahommed slept.  When he arose there was not room for him
+to stand upright, so the Rock receded, and the hollow place
+remains to this day in proof of it.  Beneath us is the Bir-el-
+Arwah, the well of souls, where those who have died come to pray
+twice weekly.  Listen!"
+
+He stamped three times with his foot on the spot about two
+feet in front of where I sat, and a faint, hollow boom answered
+the impact.
+
+"You hear?  The Rock speaks!  It spoke in plain words when the
+Prophet prayed here, and was translated instantly to heaven on
+his horse El-Burak.  Here, deep in the Rock, is the print of the
+hand of the angel, who restrained the Rock from following the
+Prophet on his way to Paradise.  Here, in this niche, is where
+Abraham used to pray;  here, Elijah.  On the last day the Kaaba
+of Mecca must come to this place.  For it is here, in this cave,
+that the blast of the trumpet will sound, announcing the day of
+judgment.  Then God's throne will be planted on the Rock above
+us.  Be humble in the presence of these marvels."
+
+He turned on his pompous heel and led the way out again without
+as much as a sidewise glance at me.  The spy was satisfied;  he
+followed the party up the rock-hewn steps, and as a matter of
+fact went to sleep on a mat near the north door, for so I found
+him later on.
+
+The silence shut down again.  Suliman went fast asleep, snoring
+with the even cadence of a clock's tick, using my knees for a
+pillow with a perfect sense of ownership.  He was there to keep
+care of me, not I of him.  The sleep suggestion very soon took
+hold of me, too, for there was nothing whatever to do but sit and
+watch the shadows move, trying to liken them to something real as
+they changed shape in answer to the flickering of the tiny, naked
+flame.  Thereafter, the vigil resolved itself into a battle
+with sleep, and an effort to keep my wits sufficiently alert for
+sudden use.
+
+I had no watch.  There was nothing to give the least notion of
+how much time had passed.  I even counted the boy's snores for a
+while, and watched one lonely louse moving along the wall--so
+many snores to the minute--so many snores to an inch of crawling;
+but the louse changed what little mind he had and did not walk
+straight, and I gave up trying to calculate the distance he
+traveled in zigzags and curves, although it would have been an
+interesting problem for a navigator.  Finally, Suliman's
+snoring grew so loud that that in itself kept me awake;  it
+was like listening to a hair-trombone;  each blast of it rasped
+your nerves.
+
+You could not hear anything in the mosque above, although there
+were only eleven steps and the opening was close at hand;  for
+the floor above was thickly carpeted, and if there were any
+sounds they were swallowed by that and the great, domed roof.
+When I guessed it might be midnight I listened for the voice of
+the muezzin;  but if he did call the more-than-usually faithful
+to wake up and pray, he did it from a minaret outside, and no
+faint echo of his voice reached me.  I was closed in a tomb in
+the womb of living rock, to all intents and purposes.
+
+But it must have been somewhere about midnight when I heard a
+sound that set every vein in my body tingling.  At first it was
+like the sort of sound that a rat makes gnawing;  but there
+couldn't be rats eating their way through that solid stone.  I
+thought I heard it a second time, but Suliman's snoring made it
+impossible to listen properly.  I shook him violently, and he
+sat up.
+
+"Keep still!  Listen!"
+
+Between sleeping and waking the boy forgot all about the iron
+self-control he practised for Grim's exacting sake.
+
+"What is it?  I am afraid!"
+
+"Be still, confound you!  Listen!"
+
+"How close beneath us are the souls of the dead?  Oh, I
+am afraid!"
+
+"Silence!  Breathe through your mouth.  Make no noise at all!"
+
+He took my hand and tried to sit absolutely still;  but the
+gnawing noise began again, more distinctly, followed by two or
+three dull thuds from somewhere beneath us.
+
+"Oh, it is the souls of dead men!  Oh--"
+
+"Shut up, you little idiot!  All right, I'll tell Jimgrim!"
+
+Fear and that threat combined were altogether too much for him.
+One sprig of seedling manhood remained to him, and only one--the
+will to smother emotion that he could not control a second
+longer.  He buried his head in my lap, stuffing his mouth with
+the end of the abiyi to choke the sobs back. I covered his head
+completely and, like the fabled ostrich, in that darkness he
+felt better.
+
+Suddenly, as clear as the ring of glass against thick glass in
+the distance, something gave way and fell beneath us.  Then
+again.  Then there were several thuds, followed by a rumble that
+was unmistakable--falling masonry;  it was the noise that bricks
+make when they dump them from a tip-cart, only smothered by the
+thickness of the cavern floor.  I shook Suliman again.
+
+"Come on.  We're going.  Now, let me have a good account of you
+to give to Jimgrim.  Shut your teeth tight, and remember the part
+you've got to play."
+
+He scrambled up the steps ahead of me, and I had to keep hold of
+the skirts of his smock to prevent him from running.  But he took
+my hand at the top, and we managed to get out through the north
+door without exciting comment, and without waking the spy,
+although I would just as soon have wakened him, for Grim seemed
+to think it important that his alibi and mine should be well
+established;  however, there were two others watching by the
+hotel.  Ten minutes later I was glad I had not disturbed him.
+
+I gave Suliman a two-piastre piece to pay the man who had charge
+of my slippers at the door, and the young rascal was so far
+recovered from his fright that he demanded change out of it, and
+stood there arguing until he got it.  Then, hand-in-hand, we
+crossed the great moonlit open court to the gate by which Grim
+had brought us in.
+
+Looking back, so bright was the moon that you could even see the
+blue of the tiles that cover the mosque wall, and the interwoven
+scroll of writing from the Koran that runs around like a frieze
+below the dome.  But it did not look real.  It was like a
+dream-picture--perhaps the dream of the men who slept huddled
+under blankets in the porches by the gate.  If so, they
+dreamed beautifully.
+
+There was a Sikh, as Grim had said there would be, standing with
+fixed bayonet on the bottom step leading to the street.  He
+stared hard at me, and brought his rifle to the challenge as I
+approached him--a six-foot, black-bearded stalwart he was, with a
+long row of campaign ribbons, and the true, truculent Sikh way of
+carrying his head.  He looked strong enough to carry an ox away.
+
+"Atcha!" said I, going close to him.
+
+He did not answer a word, but shouldered his rifle and marched
+off.  Before he had gone six paces he brought the rifle to the
+trail, and started running.  Another Sikh--a younger man--stepped
+out of the shadow and took his place on the lower step.  He was
+not quite so silent, and he knew at least one word of Arabic.
+
+"Imshi!" he grunted;  and that, in plain U.S. American, means
+"Beat it!"
+
+I had no objection.  It sounded rather like good advice.
+Remembering what Grim had said about the danger I was running,
+and looking at the deep black shadows of the streets, it occurred
+to me that that spy, who slept so soundly by the mosque door,
+might wake up and be annoyed with himself.  When men of that type
+get annoyed they generally like to work it off on somebody.
+
+Rather, than admit that he had let me get away from him he might
+prefer to track me through the streets and use his knife on me in
+some dark corner.  After that he could claim credit with
+Noureddin Ali by swearing he had reason to suspect me of
+something or other.  The suggestion did not seem any more unreal
+to me than the moonlit panorama of the Haram-es-Sheriff, or the
+Sikh who had stepped out of nowhere-at-all to "Imshi" me away.
+
+On the other hand, I had no fancy for the hotel steps.  To sit
+and fall asleep there would be to place myself at the mercy of
+the other two spies, who might come and search me;  and I was
+conscious of certain papers in an inner pocket, and of underclothes
+made in America, that might have given the game away.
+
+Besides, I was no longer any too sure of Suliman.  The boy was so
+sleepy that his wits were hardly in working order;  if those two
+spies by the hotel were to question him he might betray the two
+of us by some clumsy answer.  If there was to be trouble that
+night I preferred to have it at the hands of Sikhs, who are
+seldom very drastic unless you show violence.  I might be
+arrested if I walked the streets, but that would be sheer profit
+as compared to half-a-yard of cold knife in the broad of my back.
+
+"Take me to the house where you talked with your mother," I said
+to Suliman.
+
+So we turned to the left and set off together in that direction,
+watched with something more than mild suspicion by the Sikh, and,
+if Suliman's sensations were anything like mine, feeling about as
+cheerless, homeless and aware of impending evil as the dogs that
+slunk away into the night.  I took advantage of the first deep
+shadow I could find to walk in, less minded to explore than to
+avoid pursuit.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eighteen
+
+"But we're ready for them."
+
+
+Without in the least suspecting it I had gone straight into a
+blind trap, into which, it was true, I could not be followed by
+Noureddin Ali's spy, but out of which there was no escape without
+being recognized.  The moment I stepped into the deep shadow I
+heard an unmistakable massed movement behind me.  Sure that I
+could not be seen, I faced about.  A platoon of Sikhs had
+appeared from somewhere, and were standing at ease already,
+across the end of the street I had entered, with the moonlight
+silvering their bayonets.
+
+Well, most streets have two ends.  So I walked forward, not
+taking much trouble about concealment, since it was not easy to
+walk silently.  If the Sikh can't see his enemy he likes to fire
+first and challenge afterwards.  I preferred to be seen.  The
+sight of those uncompromising bayonets had changed my mind about
+the choice of evils.  The knife of a hardly probable assassin
+seemed a wiser risk than the ready triggers of the Punjaub.
+Half-way down the street Suliman tugged at my cloak.
+
+"That is the place where my mother is," he said, pointing to a
+narrow door on the left.
+
+But I was taking no chances in that direction--not at that
+moment.  The little stone house was all in darkness.  There were
+no windows that I could see.  No sound came from it.  And farther
+down the street there was a lamp burning, whose light spelled
+safety from shots fired at the sound of foot-fall on suspicion.
+I wanted that light between me and the Sikh platoon, yet did not
+dare run for it, since that would surely have started trouble.
+It is my experience of Sikhs that when they start a thing they
+like to finish it.  They are very good indeed at explanations
+after the event.
+
+The Sikhs must have seen us pass through the belt of gasoline
+light, but they did not challenge, so I went forward more slowly,
+with rather less of that creepy feeling that makes a man's spine
+seem to belong to some one else.  Toward its lower end the street
+curved considerably, and we went about a quarter of a mile before
+the glare of another light began to appear around the bend.
+
+That was at a cross-street, up which I proposed to turn more or
+less in the direction of the hotel.  But I did nothing of the
+sort.  There was a cordon of Sikhs drawn across there, too, with
+no British officer in sight to enforce discretion.
+
+Come to think of it, I have always regarded a bayonet wound in
+the stomach as the least desirable of life's unpleasantries.
+
+So Suliman and I turned back.  I decided to investigate that dark
+little stone house, after all;  for it occurred to me that, if
+that was the centre of conspiracy, then Grim would certainly show
+up there sooner or later and straighten out the predicament.
+Have you ever noticed how hungry you get walking about aimlessly
+in the dark, especially when you are sleepy in the bargain?
+Suliman began to whimper for food, and although I called him a
+belly on legs by way of encouragement he had my secret sympathy.
+I was as hungry as he was;  and I needed a drink, too, which he
+didn't.  The little devil hadn't yet included whiskey in his list
+of vices.
+
+The side of the street an which the little stone house stood was
+the darker, so we sat down with our backs against its wall, and
+the boy proceeded to fall asleep at once.  The one thing I was
+sure I must not do was imitate him.  So I began to look about me
+in the hope of finding something sufficiently interesting to keep
+me awake.
+
+There was nothing in the street except the makings of a bad
+smell.  There was plenty of that.  I searched the opposite wall,
+on which the moon shone, but there was nothing there of even
+architectural interest.  My eyes traveled higher, and rested at
+last on something extremely curious.
+
+The wall was not very high at that point.  It formed the blind
+rear of a house that faced into a court of some sort approached
+by an alley from another street.  There were no windows.  A small
+door some distance to my left belonged obviously to the next
+house.  On top of the wall, almost exactly, but not quite, in the
+middle of it, was a figure that looked like a wooden carving--
+something like one of those fat, seated Chinamen they used to set
+over the tea counter of big grocer's shops.
+
+But the one thing that you never see, and can be sure of not
+seeing in Jerusalem outside of a Christian church, is a carved
+human figure of any kind.  The Moslems are fanatical on that
+point.  Whatever exterior statues the crusaders for instance
+left, the Saracens and Turks destroyed.  Besides, why was it not
+exactly in the middle?
+
+It was much too big and thick-set to be a sleeping vulture.  It
+was the wrong shape to be any sort of chimney.  It was certainly
+not a bale of merchandise put up on the roof to dry.  And the
+longer you looked at it the less it seemed to resemble anything
+recognizable.  I had about reached the conclusion that it must be
+a bundle of sheepskins up-ended, ready to be spread out in the
+morning sun, and was going to cast about for something else to
+puzzle over, when it moved.  The man who thinks he would not feel
+afraid when a thing like that moves in the dark unexpectedly has
+got to prove it before I believe him.  The goose-flesh broke out
+all over me.
+
+A moment later the thing tilted forward, and a man's head emerged
+from under a blanket.  It chuckled damnably.  If there had been a
+rock of the right size within reach I would have thrown it, for
+it is not agreeable to be chuckled at when you are hungry,
+sleepy, and in a trap.  I know just how trapped animals feel.
+
+But then it spoke in good plain English;  and you could not
+mistake the voice.
+
+"That's what comes of suiting yourself, doesn't it!  Place
+plugged at both ends, and nowhere to go but there and back!
+Thanks for tipping off Narayan Singh--you see, we were all ready.
+Here's a pass that'll let you out--catch!"
+
+He threw down a piece of white paper, folded.
+
+"Show that to the Sikhs at either end.  Now beat it, while the
+going's good.  Leave Suliman there.  I shall want him when he has
+had his sleep out.  Say:  hadn't you better change your   mind
+about coming back too soon from that joy ride?  Haven't you had
+enough of this?  The next move's dangerous."
+
+"Is it my choice?" I asked.
+
+"We owe you some consideration."
+
+"Then I'm in on the last act."
+
+"All right.  But don't blame me.  Turner will give you orders.
+Get a move on."
+
+I lowered Suliman's head gently from my knee on to a nice
+comfortable corner of the stone gutter, and went up-street to
+interview the Sikhs.  It was rather like a New York Customs
+inspection, after your cabin steward has not been heavily enough
+tipped, and has tipped off the men in blue by way of distributing
+the discontent.  I showed them the safe-pass Grim had scribbled.
+They accepted that as dubious preliminary evidence of my right to
+be alive, but no more.  I was searched painstakingly and
+ignominiously for weapons.  No questions asked.  Nothing taken
+for granted.  Even my small change was examined in the moonlight,
+coin by coin, to make sure, I suppose, that it wouldn't explode
+if struck on stone.  They gave everything back to me, including
+my underwear.
+
+A bearded non-commissioned officer entered a description of me in
+a pocket memorandum book.  If his face, as he wrote it, was
+anything to judge by he described me as a leper without a
+license.  Then I was cautioned gruffly in an unknown tongue and
+told to "imshi!"  It isn't a bad plan to "imshi" rather quickly
+when a Sikh platoon suggests your doing it.  I left them standing
+all alone, with nothing but the empty night to bristle at.
+
+The rest of that night, until half-an-hour before dawn was a
+half-waking dream of discomfort and chilly draughts in the mouth
+of the hotel arcade, where I sat and watched the spies, and they
+watched me.  The third man was presumably still sleeping in the
+mosque, but it was satisfactory to know that the other two were
+just as cold and unhappy as I felt.
+
+About ten minutes before the car came the third man showed up
+sheepishly, looking surprised as well as relieved to find me
+sitting there.  He put in several minutes explaining matters to
+his friends.  I don't doubt he lied like a horse-trader and gave
+a detailed account of having followed me from place to place, for
+he used a great deal of pantomimic gesture.  The other two were
+cynical with the air of men who must sit and listen to another
+blowing his own trumpet.
+
+The car arrived with a fanfare of horn-blowing, the chauffeur
+evidently having had instructions to call lots of attention to
+himself.  Turner came out at once, with the lower part of his
+face protected against the morning chill by a muffler.  Being
+about the same height, and in that Syrian uniform, he looked
+remarkably like Grim, except that he did not imitate the stride
+nearly as well.
+
+He stumbled over me, clutched my shoulder and made signs for the
+benefit of the spies.  Then he whispered to me to help him carry
+out the "money" bags.  So we each took three for the first trip,
+and each contrived to drop one.  By the time all ten bags were in
+the car there can hardly have remained any doubt in the
+conspirators' minds that we were really taking funds to Mustapha
+Kemal, or at any rate to somebody up north.
+
+But Davey was no half-way concession maker.  Having lent himself
+unwillingly to the trick, he did his utmost to make it succeed,
+like a good sport.  He stuck his head out of a bedroom window.
+
+"Don't forget, now, to send me those rugs from Damascus!"
+he shouted.
+
+It all went like clockwork.  Glancing back as we drove by the
+Jaffa Gate I saw the three spies walk away, and there is very
+often more information in men's backs than in their faces.  They
+walked like laborers returning home with a day's work behind
+them, finished;  not at all like men in doubt, nor as if they
+suspected they were followed, although in fact they were.  Three
+Sikhs emerged from the corner by the Gate and strolled along
+behind them.  Detailed preparations for the round-up had begun.
+The unostentatious mechanism of it seemed more weird and terrible
+than the conspiracy itself.
+
+There was a full company of Sikhs standing to arms in a side
+street leading off the Jaffa Road, but they took no notice of us.
+Their officer looked keenly at us once, and then very
+deliberately stared the other way, illustrating how some fighting
+men make pretty poor dissemblers;  every one of his dark-skinned
+rank and file had observed all the details of our outfit without
+seeming to see us at all.
+
+"We're using nothing but Sikhs on this job," said Turner.
+"British troops wouldn't appreciate the delicacy of the
+situation.  Moslems couldn't be trusted not to talk.  The Sikhs
+enjoy the surreptitious part of it, and don't care enough about
+the politics to get excited.  Wish I might be in at the finish,
+though!  Have you any notion what the real objective is?"
+
+"No," said I, and tried not to feel, or look pleased with myself.
+But no mere amateur can conceal that, in the moment of discovery,
+he knows more about the inside of an official business than one
+of the Administration's lawful agents.  That is nine-tenths of
+the secret of "bossed" politics--the sheer vanity of being on the
+inside, "in the know."  I suppose I smirked.   "Damn this ride
+to Haifa!  What the hell have you done, I wonder, that you should
+have a front pew?  Is the Intelligence short of officers?"
+
+I had done nothing beyond making Grim's acquaintance and by good
+luck tickling his flair for odd friendship.  I thought it better
+not to say that, so I went on lying.
+
+"I don't suppose I know any more than you do."
+
+"Rot!  I posted the men who watched you into Djemal's place
+yesterday, and watched you out again.  You acted pretty poorly,
+if you ask me.  It's a marvel we didn't have to go in there and
+rescue you.  I suppose you're another of Grim's favorites.  He
+picks some funny ones.  Half the men in jail seem to be friends
+of his."
+
+I decided to change the subject.
+
+"I was told to change clothes and walk back after a mile or so,"
+I said.  "Suppose we don't make it a Marathon.  Why walk farther
+than we need to?"
+
+"Uh!"
+
+I think he was feeling sore enough to take me ten miles for the
+satisfaction of making me tramp them back to Jerusalem.  But it
+turned out not to be his day for working off grievances.  We were
+bowling along pretty fast, and had just reached open country
+where it would be a simple matter to change into other clothes
+without risk of being seen doing it, when we began to be
+overhauled by another, larger car that came along at a terrific
+pace.  It was still too dark to make out who was in it until it
+drew almost abreast.
+
+"The Administrator by the Horn Spoon!  What next, I wonder!  Pull
+up!" said Turner.  "Morning, sir."
+
+The two cars came to a standstill.  The Administrator leaned out.
+
+"I think I can save you a walk," he said, smiling.  "How about
+changing your clothes between the cars and driving back with me?"
+
+I did not even know yet what new disguise I was to assume, but
+Turner opened a hand-bag and produced a suit of my own clothes
+and a soft hat.
+
+"Burgled your bedroom," he explained.
+
+All he had forgotten was suspenders.  No doubt it would have
+given him immense joy to think of me walking back ten miles
+without them.
+
+Sir Louis gave his orders while I changed clothes.
+
+"You'd better keep going for some time, Turner.  No need to go
+all the way to Haifa, but don't get back to Jerusalem before
+noon at the earliest, and be sure you don't talk to anybody on
+your way."
+
+Turner drove on.  I got in beside the Administrator.
+
+"Grim tells me that you don't object to a certain amount of risk.
+You've been very useful, and he thinks you would like to see the
+end of the business.  I wouldn't think of agreeing to it, only we
+shall have to call on you as a witness against Scharnhoff and
+Noureddin Ali.  As you seem able to keep still about what you
+know, it seems wiser not to change witnesses at this stage.  It
+is highly important that we should have one unofficial observer,
+who is neither Jew nor Moslem, and who has no private interest to
+serve.  But I warn you, what is likely to happen this morning
+will be risky."
+
+I looked at the scar on his cheek, and the campaign ribbons, and
+the attitude of absolute poise that can only be attained by years
+of familiarity with danger.
+
+"Why do you soldiers always act like nursemaids toward
+civilians?" I asked him.  "We're bone of your bone."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Entrenched privilege!  If we let you know too much you'd think
+too little of us!"
+
+We stopped at a Jew's store outside the city for suspenders, and
+then made the circuit outside the walls in a whirlwind of dust,
+stopping only at each gate to get reports from the officers
+commanding companies drawn up in readiness to march in and police
+the city.
+
+"It's all over the place that disaster of some sort is going to
+happen today," said Sir Louis.  "It only needs a hatful of
+rumours to set Jerusalemites at one another's throats.  But we're
+ready for them.  The first to start trouble this morning will be
+the first to get it.  Now--sorry you've no time for breakfast--
+here's the Jaffa Gate.  Will you walk through the city to that
+street where Grim talked with you from a roof last night?  You'll
+find him thereabouts.  Sure you know the way?  Good-bye.  Good
+luck!  No, you won't need a pass;  there'll be nobody to
+interfere with you."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Nineteen
+
+"Dead or alive, sahib."
+
+
+I did get breakfast nevertheless, but in a strange place.  The
+city shutters were coming down only under protest, because, just
+as in Boston and other hubs of sanctity, shop-looting starts less
+than five minutes after the police let go control.  There was an
+average, that morning, of about ten rumours to the ear.  So the
+shop-keepers had to be ordered to open up.  About the mildest
+rumour was that the British had decide to vacate and to leave the
+Zionists in charge of things.  You couldn't fool an experienced
+Jew as to what would happen in that event.  There was another
+rumour that Mustapha Kemal was on the march.  Another that an
+Arab army was invading from the direction of El-Kerak.  But there
+were British officers walking about with memorandum books, and a
+fifty-pound fine looked more serious than an outbreak that had
+not occurred yet.  So they were putting down their shutters.
+
+I had nearly reached the Haram-es-Sheriff, and was passing a
+platoon of Sikhs who dozed beside their rifles near a street
+corner, when Grim's voice hailed me through the half-open door
+behind them.  He was back in his favourite disguise as a Bedouin,
+squatting on a mat near the entrance of a vaulted room, where he
+could see through the door without being seen.
+
+"This is headquarters for the present," he explained.  "Soon as
+we bag the game we'll run 'em in here quick as lightning.  Most
+likely keep 'em here all day, so's not to have to parade 'em
+through the streets until after dark.  A man's coming soon with
+coffee and stuff to eat."
+
+"What's become of Suliman?"
+
+"He's shooting craps with two other young villains close to
+where you left him last night.  I'm hoping he'll get word with
+his mother."
+
+Grim looked more nervous than I had ever seen him.  There was a
+deep frown between his eyes.  He talked as if he were doing it to
+keep himself from worrying.
+
+"What's eating you?" I asked.
+
+"Noureddin Ali.  After all this trouble to bag the whole gang
+without any fuss there's a chance he's given us the slip.  I
+watched all night to make sure he didn't come out of that door.
+He didn't.  But I've no proof he's in there.  Scharnhoff's in
+there, and five of the chief conspirators.  Noureddin Ali may be.
+But a man brought me a story an hour ago about seeing him on the
+city wall.  However, here's the food.  So let's eat."
+
+He sat and munched gloomily, until presently Goodenough joined
+us, looking, what with that monocle and one thing and another, as
+if he had just stepped out of a band-box.
+
+"Well, Grim, the net's all ready.  If that TNT is where you say
+it is, in that big barn behind the fruit-stalls near the Jaffa
+Gate, it's ours the minute they make a move."
+
+"There isn't a doubt on that point," Grim answered.  "Why else
+should Scharnhoff open a fruit-shop?  The license for it was
+taken out by one of Noureddin Ali's agents, whose brother deals
+in fruit wholesale and owns that barn.  Narayan Singh tracked
+some suspicious packages to that place four days ago.  They'll
+start to carry it into the city hidden under loads of fruit just
+as soon as the morning crowd begins to pour in.  We only need let
+them get the first consignment in, so as to have the chain of
+evidence complete.  Are you sure your men will let the first lot
+go through?"
+
+"Absolutely.  Just came from giving them very careful
+instructions. The minute that first load disappears into the city
+they'll close in on the barn and arrest every one they find in
+there.  But what are you gloomy about?"
+
+"I'd hate to miss the big fish."
+
+"You mean Noureddin Ali ?"
+
+"It looks to me as if he's been a shade too wise for us.  One man
+swore he saw him on the wall this morning, but he was gone when I
+sent to make sure.  We've got all the rest.  There are five in
+Djemal's Cafe, waiting for the big news;  they'll be handcuffed
+one at a time by the police when they get tired of waiting and
+come out.
+
+"But I'd rather bag Noureddin Ali than all the others put
+together.  He's got brains, that little beast has.  He'd know how
+to use this story against us with almost as much effect as if
+he'd pulled the outrage off."
+
+He had hardly finished speaking when Narayan Singh's great bulk
+darkened the doorway.  He closed the door behind him, as if
+afraid the other Sikhs might learn bad news.
+
+"It is true, sahib.  He was on the wall.  He is there again."
+
+"Have you seen him?"
+
+"Surely.  He makes signals to the men who are loading the donkeys
+now in the door of the barn.  It would be a difficult shot.  His
+head hardly shows between the battlements.  But I think I could
+hit him from the road below.  Shall I try?"
+
+"No, you'd only scare him into hiding if you miss.  Oh hell!
+There are three ways up on to the wall at that point.  There's no
+time to block them all--not if he's signalling now.  He'll see
+your men close in on the barn, sir, and beat it for the skyline.
+Oh, damn and blast the luck!"
+
+"At least we can try to cut him off," said Goodenough.  "I'll
+take some men myself and have a crack at it."
+
+"No use, sir.  You'd never catch sight of him.  I wish you'd let
+Narayan Singh take three men, make for the wall by the shortest
+way, and hunt him if it takes a week."
+
+"Why not?  All right.  D'you hear that, Narayan Singh?"
+
+"Atcha, sahib."
+
+"You understand?" said Grim.  "Keep him moving.  Keep after him."
+
+"Do the sahibs wish him alive or dead?"
+
+"Either way," said Goodenough.
+
+"If he's gone from the wall when you get there," Grim added,
+"bring us the news.  You'll know where to find us"
+
+"Atcha"
+
+The Sikh brought his rifle to the shoulder, faced about,
+marched out, chose three men from the platoon in the street,
+and vanished.
+
+"Too bad, too bad!" said Goodenough, but Grim did not answer.  He
+was swearing a blue streak under his breath.  The next to arrive
+on the scene was Suliman, grinning with delight because he had
+won all the money of the other urchins, but brimming with news in
+the bargain.  He considered a mere colonel of cavalry beneath
+notice, and addressed himself to Grim without ceremony.
+
+"My mother brought out oranges in baskets and set them on benches
+on both sides of the door.  Then she went in, and I heard her
+scream.  There was a fight inside."
+
+"D'you care to bet, sir?" asked Grim.
+
+"On what?"
+
+"I'll bet you a hundred piastres Scharnhoff has tried to make his
+get-away, and they've either killed him or tied him hand and
+foot.  Another hundred on top of that, that Scharnhoff offers to
+turn state witness, provided he's alive when we show up."
+
+"All right.  I'll bet you he hangs."
+
+"Are you coming with us, sir?"
+
+"Wouldn't miss it for a king's ransom."
+
+"The back way out, then."
+
+Grim beckoned the Sikhs into the room, left one man in there in
+charge of Suliman, who swore blasphemously at being left behind,
+and led the way down a passage that opened into an alley
+connecting with a maze of others like rat runs, mostly arched
+over and all smelly with the unwashed gloom of ages.  At the end
+of the last alley we entered was a flight of stone steps, up
+which we climbed to the roof of the house on which I had seen
+Grim the night before.
+
+There was a low coping on the side next the street, and some one
+had laid a lot of bundles of odds and ends against it;  lying
+down, we could look out between those without any risk of being
+seen from below, but Goodenough made the Sikhs keep well in the
+background and only we three peered over the edge.  About two
+hundred yards in front of us the Dome of the Rock glistened in
+the morning sun above the intervening roofs.  The street was
+almost deserted, although the guards at either end had been
+removed for fear of scaring away the conspirators.  We watched
+for about twenty minutes before any one passed but occasional
+beggars, some of whom stopped to wonder why oranges should stand
+on sale outside a door with nobody in charge of them.  Three
+separate individuals glanced right and left and then helped
+themselves pretty liberally from the baskets.
+
+But at last there came five donkeys very heavily loaded with
+oranges and raisins, in charge of six men, which was a more than
+liberal allowance.  When they stopped at the little stone house
+in front of us there was another thing noticeable;  instead of
+hitting the donkeys hard on the nose with a thick club, which is
+the usual way of calling a halt in Palestine, they went to the
+heads and stopped them reasonably gently.  So, although all six
+men were dressed to resemble peasants, they were certainly
+nothing of the kind.
+
+Nor were they such wide-awake conspirators as they believed
+themselves, for they were not in the least suspicious of six
+other men, also dressed as peasants, who followed them up-street,
+and sat down in full view with their backs against a wall.  Yet I
+could see quite plainly the scabbard of a bayonet projecting
+through a hole in the ragged cloak of the nearest of those
+casual wayfarers.
+
+They had to knock several minutes before the door opened
+gingerly;  then they off-loaded the donkeys, and it took two men
+to carry each basketful, with a third lending a hand in case of
+accident.  Only one man went back with the donkeys, and two of
+the casual loafers against the wall got up to saunter after him;
+the other five honest merchants went inside, and we heard the
+bolt shoot into its iron slot behind them.
+
+"How about it, Grim?" asked Goodenough then.
+
+"Ready, sir.  Will you give the order?"
+
+We filed in a hurry down the steps into the alley, ran in a zig-
+zag down three passages, and reached another alley with narrow
+door at its end that faced the street.  Grim had made every
+preparation.  There was a heavy baulk of timber lying near the
+door, with rope-handles knotted into holes bored through it at
+intervals.  The Sikhs picked that up and followed us into
+the street.
+
+The mechanism of the Administration's net was a thing to wonder
+at.  As we emerged through the door the "peasants" who were
+loafing with their backs against the wall got up and formed a
+cordon across the street.  Simultaneously, although I neither saw
+nor heard any signal, a dozen Sikhs under a British officer came
+down the street from the other direction at the double and formed
+up in line on our lefthand.  A moment later, our men were
+battering the door down with their baulk of timber, working all
+together as if they had practised the stunt thoroughly.
+
+It was a stout door, three inches thick, of ancient olivewood and
+reinforced with forged iron bands.  The hinges, too, had been
+made by hand in the days when, if a man's house was not his
+fortress, he might just as well own nothing;  they were cemented
+deep into the wall, and fastened to the door itself with half-
+inch iron rivets.  The door had to be smashed to pieces, and the
+noise we made would have warned the devils in the middle of
+the world.
+
+"We shouldn't have let them get in with any TNT at all," said
+Goodenough.  "They'll touch it off before we can prevent them."
+
+"Uh-uh!  They're not that kind," Grim answered.  "They'll fight
+for their skins.  Have your gun ready, sir.  They've laid their
+plans for a time-fuse and a quick getaway.  They'll figure the
+going may be good still if they can once get past us.  Look out
+for a rush!"
+
+But when the door went down at last in a mess of splinters
+there was no rush--nothing but silence--a dark, square, stone
+room containing two cots and a table, and fruit scattered all
+over the floor amid gray dust and fragments of cement.  Grim
+laughed curtly.
+
+"Look, sir!"
+
+The fruit-baskets were on the floor by one of the cots, and the
+TNT containers were still in them.  They had tipped out the
+fruit, and then run at the sound of the battering ram.
+
+Goodenough stepped into the room, and we followed him.  Beyond
+the table, half-hidden by a great stone slab, was a dark hole in
+the floor.  Evidently the last man through had tried to cover up
+the hole, but had found the stone too heavy.  The Sikhs dragged
+it clear and disclosed the mouth of a tunnel, rather less than a
+man's height, sloping sharply downward.
+
+"What we need now is mustard gas.  Smoke 'em out,"
+said Goodenough.
+
+"Might kill 'em," Grim objected.
+
+"That'd be too bad, wouldn't it!"
+
+"We could starve 'em out, for that matter," said Grim.  "But
+they've probably got water down there, and perhaps food.  Every
+hour of delay adds to the risk of rioting.  We've got to get this
+hole sealed up permanently, and deny that it was ever opened."
+
+"We could do that at once!  But I won't be a party to sealing 'em
+up alive."
+
+"Besides, sir, they've certainly got firearms, and they might
+just possible have one can of TNT down there."
+
+"All right," said Goodenough.  "I'll lead the way down."
+
+"I've a plan," said Grim.
+
+He took one of the fruit-baskets and began breaking it up.
+
+"Who has a white shirt?" he asked.
+
+I was the haberdasher.  The others, Sikhs included, were all
+clothed in khaki from coat to skin.  Grim's Bedouin array was
+dark-brown.  I peeled the shirt off, and Grim rigged it on a
+frame of basket-work, with a clumsy pitch-forked arrangement of
+withes at the bottom.  The idea was not obvious until he twisted
+the withes about his waist;  then, when he bent down, the shirt
+stood up erect above him.
+
+"If you don't mind, sir, we'll have two or three Sikhs go first.
+Have them take their boots off and crawl quietly as flat down as
+they can keep.  I'll follow 'em with this contraption.  They'll
+be able to see the white shirt dimly against the tunnel, and if
+they do any shooting they'll aim at that.  Then if the rest of
+you keep low behind me we've a good chance to rush them before
+they can do any damage."
+
+I never met a commanding officer more free from personal conceit
+than Goodenough, and as I came to know more of him later on that
+characteristic stood out increasingly.  He was not so much a man
+of ideas as one who could recognize them.  That done, he made use
+of his authority to back up his subordinates, claiming no credit
+for himself but always seeing to it that they got theirs.
+
+The result was that he was simultaneously despised and loved--
+despised by the self-advertising school, of which there are
+plenty in every army, and loved--with something like fanaticism
+by his junior officers and men.
+
+"I agree to that," he said simply, screwing in his monocle.  Then
+he turned and instructed the Sikhs in their own language.
+
+"You follow last," he said to me.  "Now--all ready?"
+
+He had a pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the other, but
+had to stow them both away again in order to crawl in the tunnel.
+Grim had no weapon in sight.  The two Sikhs who were to lead had
+stripped themselves of everything that might make a noise, but
+the others kept both boots and rifles, with bayonets fixed, for
+it did not much matter what racket they made.  In fact, the more
+noise we, who followed, made, the better, since that would draw
+attention from the Sikhs in front.  All we had to do was to keep
+our bodies below Grim's kite affair, out of the probable line
+of fire.
+
+Nevertheless, that dark hole was untempting.  A dank smell came
+out of it, like the breath of those old Egyptian tombs in which
+the bones of horses, buried with their masters, lie all about on
+shelves.  You couldn't see into it more than a yard or two, for
+the only light came through the doorway of the windowless room,
+and the tunnel led into the womb of rock where, perhaps, no light
+had been since Solomon's day.
+
+But the leading Sikhs went in without hesitation and got down on
+their bellies.  They might have been swallowed whole for all that
+I heard or saw of them from that minute.  You could guess why the
+Turks and Germans had not really craved to meet those fellows out
+in No-man's-land.
+
+Grim went in on all-fours like a weird animal, with my shirt
+dancing on its frame above his back.  Goodenough went next,
+peering through that window-pane monocle like a deep-sea fish.
+All the rest of the Sikhs went after him in Indian file, dragging
+their rifle-butts along the tunnel floor and making noise enough
+to remind you of the New York subway.
+
+I went in at the tail end, trying at intervals to peer around a
+khaki-covered Punjaub rump, alternately getting my head and
+fingers bruised by heels I could not see and a rifle-butt that
+only moved in jerks when you didn't expect it to.  My nose was
+bleeding at the end of ten yards.
+
+But you couldn't keep your distance.  Whenever the men in front
+checked at some obstruction or paused to listen, all those behind
+closed up;  and by the time those behind had run their noses
+against iron-shod heels the men in front were on their way again.
+You couldn't see a thing until you rammed your head into it, and
+then the sense of touch gave you a sort of sight suggestion, as
+when you see things in a dream.  As for sound, the tunnel acted
+like a whispering gallery, mixing all the noises up together, so
+that you could not guess whether a man had spoken, or a stone had
+fallen, or a pistol had gone off, or all three.
+
+Once or twice, when the line closed up on itself caterpillar-
+fashion, I was able to make out my white shirt dancing dimly;
+and once, where some trick of the tunnel sorted out the sounds, I
+caught a scrap of conversation.
+
+"D'you suppose they'll be able to see the shirt?"
+
+"God knows.  I can hardly make it out from here."
+
+"When it looks like the right time to you, sir, turn the
+flashlight on it."
+
+"All right.  God damn! Keep on going--you nearly knocked out
+my eye-glass!"
+
+Even over my shoulder, looking backward, I could see practically
+nothing, for what little light came in through the opening was
+swallowed by the first few yards.  There was a suspicion of
+paleness in the gloom behind, and the occasional suggestion of an
+outline of rough wall;  no more.
+
+Nor was the tunnel straight by any means.  It turned and twisted
+constantly;  and at every bend the men who originally closed it
+had built up a wall of heavy masonry that Scharnhoff had had to
+force his way through.  In those places the broken stones were
+now lying in the fairway, as you knew by the suffering when you
+came in contact with them;  some of the split-off edges were as
+sharp as glass.
+
+It was good fun, all the same, while it lasted.  If we had been
+crawling down a sewer, or a modern passage of any kind, the sense
+of danger and discomfort would, no doubt, have overwhelmed all
+other considerations.  But, even supposing Scharnhoff had been on
+a vain hunt, and the veritable Tomb of the Kings of Judah did not
+lie somewhere in the dark ahead of us, we were nevertheless under
+the foundations of Solomon's temple, groping our way into
+mysteries that had not been disclosed, perhaps, since the days
+when the Queen of Sheba came and paid her homage to the most
+wise king.  You could feel afraid, but you couldn't wish you
+weren't there.
+
+I have no idea how long it took to crawl the length of that black
+passage.  It seemed like hours.  I heard heavy footsteps behind
+me after a while.  Some one following in a hurry, who could see
+no better than we could, kept stumbling over the falling masonry;
+and once, when he fell headlong, I heard him swear titanically in
+a foreign tongue.  I called back to whoever it was to crawl
+unless he wanted to be shot, but probably the words were all
+mixed up in the tunnel echoes, for he came on as before.
+
+Then all at once Goodenough flashed on the light for a fraction
+of a second and the shirt showed like a phantom out of blackness.
+The instant answer to that was a regular volley of shots from in
+front.  The flash of several pistols lit up the tunnel, and
+bullets rattled off the walls and roof.  The shirt fell, shot
+loose from its moorings, and the leading Sikhs gave a shout as
+they started to rush forward.
+
+We all surged after them, but there was a sudden check, followed
+by a babel worse than when a dozen pi-dogs fight over a rubbish-
+heap.  You couldn't make head or tail of it, except that
+something desperate was happening in front, until suddenly a man
+with a knife in his hand, too wild with fear to use it, came
+leaping and scrambling over the backs of Sikhs, like a forward
+bucking the line.  The Sikh in front of me knelt upright and
+collared him round the knees.  The two went down together, I on
+top of both of them with blood running down my arm, for the man
+had started to use his knife at last, slashing out at random, and
+I rather think that slight cut he gave me saved the Sikh's life.
+But you can make any kind of calculation afterwards, about what
+took place in absolute darkness, without the least fear of being
+proven wrong.  And since the Sikh and I agreed on that point no
+other opinion matters.
+
+I think that between the two of us we had that man about
+nonplused, although we couldn't see.  I had his knife, and the
+Sikh was kneeling on his stomach, when a hundred and eighty
+pounds of bone and muscle catapulted at us from the rear and
+sprawled on us headlong, saved by only a miracle from skewering
+some one with a bayonet as he fell.
+
+He laughed while he fought, this newcomer, and even asked
+questions in the Sikh tongue.  He had my arm in a grip like a
+vise and wrenched at it until I cursed him.  Then he found a leg
+in the dark and nearly broke that, only to discover it was the
+other Sikh's.  Still laughing, as if blindfolded fighting was his
+meat and drink, he reached again, and this time his fingers
+closed on enemy flesh.  Judging by the yells, they hurt, too.
+
+There must have been at least another minute of cat-and-dog-fight
+struggling--hands being stepped on and throats clutched--before
+Goodenough rolled himself free from an antagonist in front and,
+groping for the flashlight, found it and flashed it on.  The
+first thing I recognized by its light was the face of Narayan
+Singh, with wonderful white teeth grinning through his black
+beard within six inches of my nose.
+
+"Damn you!" I laughed.  "You weigh a ton.  Get off--you nearly
+killed me!"
+
+"Nearly, in war-time, means a whole new life to lose, sahib.  Be
+pleased to make the most of it!" he answered.
+
+Within two minutes after that we had eight prisoners disarmed and
+subdued, some of them rather the worse for battery.  The amazing
+thing was that we hadn't a serious casualty among the lot of us.
+We could have totaled a square yard of skin, no doubt, and a
+bushel of bruises (if that is the way you measure them) but mine
+was the only knife-wound.  I felt beastly proud.
+
+By the light of the electric torch we dragged and prodded the
+prisoners back whence they had come, and presently Grim or
+somebody found a lantern and lit it.  We found ourselves in a
+square cavern--a perfect cube it looked like--about thirty feet
+wide each way.
+
+In the midst was a plain stone coffer with its lid removed and
+set on end against it.  In the coffer lay a tall man's skeleton,
+with the chin still bound in linen browned with age.  There were
+other fragments of linen here and there, but the skeleton's bones
+had been disturbed and had fallen more or less apart.
+
+Over in one corner were two large bundles done up in modern gunny-
+bags, and Grim went over to examine them.
+
+"Hello!" he said.  "Here's Scharnhoff and his lady friend!"
+
+He ripped the lashings of both bundles and disclosed the Austrian
+and the woman, gagged and tied, both almost unconscious from
+inability to breathe, but not much hurt otherwise.
+
+The Sikhs herded the prisoners, old alligator-eyes among them,
+into another corner.  Grim tore my shirt into strips to bandage
+my arm with.  Goodenough talked with Narayan Singh, while we
+waited for Scharnhoff to recover full consciousness.
+
+"Those murderers!" he gasped at last.  "Schweinehunde!"
+
+"Better spill the beans, old boy," Grim said, smiling down at
+him.  "You'll hang at the same time they do, if you can't tell a
+straight story."
+
+"Ach!  I do not care!  There were no manuscripts--nothing!  I
+don't know whose skeleton that is--some old king David, perhaps;
+for that is not David's real tomb that the guides show.  Hang
+those murderers and I am satisfied!"
+
+"Your story may help hang them.  Come on, out with it!"
+
+"Have you caught Noureddin Ali?"
+
+"Never mind!"
+
+"But I do mind!  And you should mind!"
+
+Scharnhoff sat up excitedly.  He was dressed in the Arab garments
+I had seen in his cupboard that day when Grim and I called on
+him, with a scholar's turban that made him look very distinguished
+in spite of his disarray.
+
+"That Noureddin Ali is a devil!  Together we would look for the
+Tomb of the Kings.  Together we would smuggle out the manuscripts
+--translate them together--publish the result together.  He lent
+me money.  He promised to bring explosives.  Oh, he was full of
+enthusiasm!  It was not until last night, when I had broken that
+last obstruction down and discovered nothing but this coffin,
+that I learned his real plan.  The devil intended all along to
+fill this tomb with high explosive and to destroy the mosque above,
+with everybody in it!  Curse him!"
+
+"Never mind cursing him," said Grim, "tell us the story."
+
+"He sent oranges here, all marked with the labels of a Zionist
+colony.  When I told him that the explosive would arrive too
+late, he said I should use it to smash these walls and find
+another tomb.  He himself disappeared, and when I questioned
+his men they told me the explosive would be brought in hidden
+under fruit in baskets.  I waited then in the hope of killing
+him myself--"
+
+"Hah-hah!" laughed Grim.
+
+"That is true!  But they bound me, and later on bound the woman,
+and laid us here to be blown up together with the mosque."
+
+Grim turned to Goodenough, who had been listening.
+
+"Do I win the bet, sir?"
+
+"Ten piastoes!" said Goodenough.  "Yes. Narayan Singh says
+Noureddin Ali was gone by the time they reached the wall."
+
+"Sure, or he'd have brought Noureddin Ali.  I've been thinking,
+sir.  We've one chance left to bag that buzzard.  Will you give
+me carte blanche?"
+
+"Yes.  Go ahead."
+
+Grim crossed the place to the corner where old alligator-eyes
+stood herded with the other prisoners.
+
+"Are you guilty?" he demanded.
+
+"No.  Guilty of nothing.  I came out of curiosity to see what was
+happening here."
+
+"Thought so.  Can you hold your tongue?  Then go!  Get out
+of here!"
+
+Alligator-eyes didn't wait for a second urging, nor stay to
+question his good luck, but went off in a shambling hurry.
+
+"You are mad!" exclaimed Scharnhoff.  "That man is the next-worst!"
+
+"Grim, are you sure that's wise?" asked Goodenough.
+
+"We can get him any time we want him, sir," Grim answered.  "He
+lacks Noureddin Ali's gift of slipperiness."
+
+He turned to Narayan Singh.
+
+"Follow that man, but don't let him know he's followed.  He'll
+show you where Noureddin Ali is.  Get him this time!"
+
+"Dead or alive, sahib?"
+
+"Either."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty
+
+"All men are equal in the dark."
+
+
+The first thing Goodenough did after Grim had sent Narayan Singh
+off on his deadly mission was to summon the sheikh of the Dome of
+the Rock.  He himself went to fetch him rather than risk having
+the sheikh bring a crowd of witnesses, who would be sure to talk
+afterwards.  The all-important thing was to conceal the fact that
+sacrilege had been committed.  But it was also necessary to
+establish the fact that Zionists had had no hand in it.
+
+"You see," Grim explained, sitting on the edge of the stone
+coffin, "we could hold Jerusalem.  But if word of this business
+were to spread far and wide, you couldn't hold two or three
+hundred million fanatics;  and believe me, they'd cut loose!"
+
+"The sheikh must realize that," said I.  "What do you bet me
+he won't try to black-mail the Administration on the strength
+of it?"
+
+"I'll bet you my job!  Watch the old bird.  Listen in.  He's
+downy.  He knows a chance when he sees it, and he might try
+to cheat you at dominoes.  But in a big crisis he's a number
+one man."
+
+While we waited we tried to get an opinion out of Scharnhoff
+about the coffin and the skeleton inside it.  But the old fellow
+was heart-broken.  I think he told the truth when he said he
+couldn't explain it.
+
+"What is there to say of it, except that it is very ancient?
+There is no decoration.  The coffin is beautifully shaped out of
+one solid piece of stone, but that is all.  The skeleton is that
+of an old man, who seems to have been wounded once or twice in
+battle.  The linen is good, but there is no jewelry;  no
+ornaments.  And it is buried here in a very sacred place, so
+probably, it is one of the Jewish kings, or else one of the
+prophets.  It might be King David--who knows?  And what do I
+care?  It is what a man sets down on parchment, and not his bones
+that interest me!"
+
+The sheikh arrived at last, following Goodenough down the dark
+passage with the supreme nonchalance of the priest too long
+familiar with sacred places to be thrilled or frightened by them.
+He stood in the entrance gazing about him, blinking speculatively
+through the folds of fat surrounding his bright eyes.  Goodenough
+took the lantern and held it close to the prisoners' faces one
+by one.
+
+"You see?" he said.  "All Syrians.  All Moslems.  Not a Jew among
+them.  I'll take you and show you the others presently."
+
+"What will you do with them?"
+
+"That's for a court to decide.  Hang them, most likely.  They
+were plotting murder."
+
+"They will talk at the trial."
+
+"Behind closed doors!" said Goodenough.
+
+"Ahum!" said the sheikh, stroking his beard.  It would not
+have been compatible with either his religion or his racial
+consciousness not to try to make the utmost of the situation.
+"This would be a bad thing for all the Christian governments if
+the tale leaked out.  Religious places have been desecrated.
+There would be inflammation of Moslem prejudices everywhere."
+
+"It would be worse for you!" Grim retorted.  The sheikh stared
+hard at him, stroking his beard again,
+
+"How so, Jimgrim?  Have I had a hand in this?"
+
+"This is your famous Bir-el-Arwah, where, as you tell your
+faithful, the souls of the dead come to pray twice a week.  This
+is the gulf beneath the Rock of Abraham that you tell them
+reaches to the middle of the world.  Look at it!  Shall we
+publish flashlight photographs?"
+
+The sheikh's eyes twinkled as he recognized the force of that
+argument.  He turned it over in his mind for a full minute before
+he answered.
+
+"You cannot be expected to understand spiritual things," he said
+at last.  "However," looking up, "this is not under the Rock.
+This is another place."
+
+Goodenough pulled a compass from his pocket, but Grim shook
+his head.
+
+"Go on," said Grim. "What of it?"
+
+"It is better to close up this place and say nothing."
+
+"Except this." Goodenough retorted:  "you will say at the first
+and every succeeding opportunity that you know it is not true
+that Zionists tried to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
+
+"How do I know they did not try?"
+
+"Perhaps we'd better ask the Administrator to come and inspect
+this place officially and put the exact facts on the record,"
+Goodenough retorted.
+
+"You understand, don't you?" said Grim.
+
+"Everything we've done until now has been strictly unofficial.
+There's a difference."
+
+"And this effendi?" he asked, staring at me.  "What of him?"
+
+"He is commended to your special benevolence," Grim answered.
+"The way to keep a man like him discreet is to make a friend of
+him.  Treat him as you do me, then we three shall be friends."
+
+The sheikh nodded, and that proved to be the beginning of a
+rather intimate acquaintance with him that stood me in good stead
+more than once afterwards.  The influence that a man in his
+position can exert, if he cares to, is almost beyond the belief
+of those who pin their faith to money and mere officialdom.
+
+The prisoners were marched out.  All except Scharnhoff and the
+woman were confirmed temporarily in the room in which Grim and I
+had breakfasted.  The woman was taken to the jail until an
+American missionary could be found to take charge of her.  They
+always hand the awkward cases over to Americans, partly because
+they have a gift for that sort of thing, but also because, in
+case of need, you can blame Americans without much risk of
+a reaction.
+
+Goodenough left a guard of Sikhs outside the street entrance, to
+keep out all intruders until the sheikh could collect a few
+trustworthy masons to seal up the passage again.  Grim,
+Scharnhoff and I walked quite leisurely to Grim's quarters, where
+Grim left the two of us together in the room downstairs while he
+changed into uniform.
+
+"What will they do with me?" asked Scharnhoff.  He was not far
+from collapse.  He lay back in the armchair with his mouth open.
+I got him some of Grim's whiskey.
+
+"Nothing ungenerous," I said.  "If you were going to be hanged
+Grim would have told you."
+
+"Do you--do you think he will let me go?"
+
+"Not until he's through with you," said I, "if I'm any judge
+of him."
+
+"What use can I be to him?  My life is not worth a minute's
+purchase if Noureddin Ali finds me--he or that other whom they
+let go.  Oh, what idiots to let Noureddin Ali give them the slip,
+and then to turn the second-worst one loose as well!  Those
+English are all mad.  That man Grim has been corrupted by them!"
+
+Grim hardly looked corrupted, rather iron-hard and energetic when
+he returned presently in his major's uniform.  You could tell the
+color of his eyes now;  they were blue-gray, and there was a
+light in them that should warn the wary not to oppose him unless
+a real fight was wanted.  His manner was brisk, brusk, striding
+over trifles.  He nodded to me.
+
+"You sick of this?" he asked me.
+
+"How many times?  I want to see it through."
+
+"All right.  Your own risk."
+
+He turned on Scharnhoff, standing straight in front of him, with
+both arms behind his back.
+
+"Look here.  Have you any decency in that body of yours?  Do you
+want to prove it?  Or would you rather hang like a common
+scoundrel?  Which is it to be?"
+
+"I--I--I--I--do not understand you.  What do you mean?"
+
+"Are you game to risk your neck decently or would you rather have
+the hangman put you out of pain?"
+
+"I--I was not a conspirator, Major Grim.  If I had known what
+they intended I would never have lent myself to such a purpose.
+I needed money for my excavations--it has been very difficult to
+draw on my bank in Vienna.  Noureddin Ali represented himself to
+me as an enthusiastic antiquarian;  and when I spoke of my need
+he offered money, as I told you already.  I never suspected until
+last night that he and Abdul Ali of Damascus are French secret
+agents.  But last night he boasted to me about Abdul Ali.  He
+laughed at me.  Then he--"
+
+"Yes, yes," Grim interrupted.  "Will you play the man now, if I
+give you the chance?"
+
+"If you will accord me opportunity, at least I will do my best."
+
+"Understand;  you'll not be allowed to live here afterward.
+You'll be repatriated to Austria, or wherever you come from.
+All you're offered is a chance to clean your slate morally before
+you go."
+
+"I shall be grateful."
+
+"Will you obey?"
+
+"Absolutely--to the limit of my power, that is to say.  I am not
+an athlete--not a man of active habits."
+
+"Very well.  Listen." Grim turned to me again
+
+"Take Scharnhoff to his house.  You know the way.  When afternoon
+comes, set a table in the garden and let him sit at it.  He may
+as well read.  If nothing happens before dark, take him out a
+lamp and some food.  He mustn't move away.  He'd better change
+into his proper clothes first.  Your job will be to keep an eye
+on him until I come.  You'd better keep out of sight as much as
+possible, especially after dark.  Better watch him through the
+window.  And, by the way, take this pistol.  If Scharnhoff
+disobeys you, shoot him."
+
+He turned again on Scharnhoff.
+
+"I hope you're not fooling yourself.  I should say the chance is
+two or three to one that you'll come out of this alive.  If
+you're killed, you may flatter yourself that's a mighty sight
+cleaner than hanging.  If you come out with a whole skin, you
+shall leave the country without even going to jail.  Time to
+go now."
+
+I slipped the heavy pistol into my pocket and led the way without
+saying a word.  Scharnhoff followed me, rather drearily, and we
+walked side by side toward the German Colony, he looking exactly
+like one of those respectable and devout educated Arabs of the
+old style, who teach from commentaries on the Koran.  We excited
+no comment whatever.
+
+"What will he do?  What is his purpose?" Scharnhoff asked me
+after a while.  "If a man is in danger of death, he likes to know
+the reason--the purpose of it."
+
+I had a better than faint glimmering of Grim's purpose, but saw
+no necessity to air my views on the subject.
+
+"I'm amused," said I, "at the strictly unofficial status of all
+this.  You see, I'm no more connected with this administration
+than you are.  I'm as alien as you.  You might say, I'm a
+stranger in Jerusalem.  Yet, here I am, with a perfectly official
+pistol, loaded with official cartridges, under unofficial orders
+to shoot you at the first sign of disobedience.  And--strictly
+unofficially, between you and me--I shan't hesitate to do it!"
+
+He contrived a smile out of the depths of his despondency.
+
+"I wonder--should you shoot me--what they would do to
+you afterwards."
+
+"Something unofficial," I suggested. "But we'll leave that up to
+them.  The point is--"
+
+"Oh, don't worry!  You shall have no trouble from me."  It took a
+long time to reach his house, for the poor old chap was suffering
+from lack of sleep, and physical weariness, as well as disappointment,
+and I had to let him sit down by the wayside once or twice.  Being
+in hard condition, and not much more than half his age, I had almost
+forgotten that I had not slept the night before.  Keen curiosity as
+to what might happen between now and midnight was keeping me going.
+
+He could hardly drag himself into the house.  But a bath, and
+some food that I found in the larder restored him considerably.
+He helped me carry out the table.  He chose a book of Schiller's
+poems to take with him, but did not read it;  he sat with his
+elbows on the table and his back toward the front door, resting
+his chin gloomily on both fists.  He remained in that attitude
+all afternoon, and for all I know slept part of the time.
+
+Between him and the window of the room I sat in were some shrubs
+that obscured the view considerably.  I could see Scharnhoff
+through them easily enough, but I don't think he could see me,
+and certainly no one could have seen me from the road.  I felt
+fairly sure that no one saw me until it began to grow dark and I
+carried out the lamp.  Even then, it was Scharnhoff who struck
+the match and lit it, so that I was in shadow all the time--
+probably unrecognizable.
+
+It had been fairly easy to keep awake until then, but as the room
+grew darker and darker, and nothing happened, the yearning to
+fall asleep became actual agony.  It was a rather large, square
+room, crowded up with a jumble of antiquities.  The only real
+furniture was the window-seat on which I knelt, and an oblong
+table;  but even the table was laid on its side to make room for
+a battered Roman bust standing on the floor between its legs.
+
+I had left the door of the room wide open, in order to be able to
+hear anything that might happen in the house;  but the only sound
+came from a couple of rats that gnawed and rustled interminably
+among the rubbish in the corner.
+
+It must have been nearly eight o'clock, and I believe I had
+actually dozed off at last, kneeling in the window, when all at
+once it seemed to me that the rats were making a different, and
+greater noise than I ever heard rats make.  It was pitch-black
+dark.  I couldn't see my hand in front of me.  My first thought
+was to glance through the window at Scharnhoff, but something--
+intuition, I suppose--made me draw aside from the window instead.
+
+Then, beyond any shadow of a doubt, I heard a man move, and
+the hair rose all up the back of my head.  I remembered
+the pistol, clutched it, and found voice enough for two words:
+"Who's there?"
+
+"Hee-hee!" came the answer from behind the table.  "So Major
+Jimgrim lied about a broken leg, and thought to trap Noureddin
+Ali, did he!  Don't move, Major Jimgrim!  Don't move!  We will
+have a little talk before we bid each other good-bye!  I cannot
+last long in any case, for the cursed Sikhs are after me.  I
+would rather that you should kill me than those Sikhs should, but
+I would like to kill you also.  If you move before I give you
+leave you are a dead man, Major Jimgrim!  Hee-hee!  You cannot
+see me!  Better keep still!"
+
+If it was flattering to be mistaken for Grim in the dark, it was
+hardly pleasant in the circumstances.  For a moment I was angry.
+It flashed across my mind that Grim had planned this.  But on
+second thought I refused to believe he would deceive me about
+Scharnhoff and use me as a decoy without my permission.  I
+decided to keep still and see what happened.
+
+"Do you think you deserve to live, Major Jimgrim?" Noureddin
+Ali's voice went on.  I heard him shift his position.  He was
+probably trying to see my outline against the dark wall in order
+to take aim.  "You, a foreigner, interfering in the politics of
+this land?  But for you there would have been an explosion today
+that would have liberated all the Moslem world.  But for that lie
+about a broken leg you would have died a little after ten o'clock
+this morning--hee-hee--instead of now!  Don't move, Major
+Jimgrim!  You and I will have a duel presently.  There is lots of
+time.  The Sikhs lost track of me."
+
+I did move.  I stooped down close to the floor, so that he might
+fire over my head if, as I suspected, he was merely gaining time
+in order to take sure aim.  I tried to see which end of the table
+he was talking from, but he was hidden completely.
+
+"Do you think you should go free, to perpetrate more cowardly
+interference, after spoiling that well-laid plan?  Hee-hee!  You
+poor fool!  Busy-bodies such as you invariably overreach
+themselves.  Having tricked me two or three times, you thought,
+didn't you? that you could draw me here to kill Scharnhoff, that
+poor old sheep.  You were careful, weren't you? to let Omar
+Mahmoud go, in order that he might tell me how Scharnhoff had
+turned witness against us.  And the Sikhs followed Omar Mahmoud,
+until Omar Mahmoud found me.  And then they hunted me.  Hee-hee!
+Don't move!  Was that the plan?  Simultaneously then, being
+yourself only a fool after all, you flatter me and underestimate
+my intelligence.  Hee-hee!
+
+"You were right in thinking I would not submit to capture and
+death without first wreaking vengeance.  But vengeance on such a
+sheep as Scharnhoff?  With Major Jimgrim still alive?  What
+possessed you?  Were you mad?  I satisfied myself an hour ago
+that Scharnhoff was the bait, which the redoubtable Major Jimgrim
+would be watching.  Perhaps I shall deal with Scharnhoff
+afterwards--hee-hee!--who knows?  Now--now shall we fight that
+duel?  Are you ready?"
+
+I supposed that meant that he could not see me and had given up
+hope of it.  He would like to have me move first, so as to judge
+my exact whereabouts by sound.  I reached out very cautiously,
+and rapped the muzzle of my pistol on the floor twice.
+
+He fired instantly, three shots in succession.  The bullets went
+wild to my left and brought down showers of plaster from the
+wall.  I feared he might have seen me by the pistol-flash.  I did
+not fire back.  There was no need.  Something moved swiftly like
+a black ghost through the open door.  There was a thud--and the
+ring of a steel swivel--and a scream.
+
+"Has the sahib a match?" said a gruff voice that I thought
+I recognized.
+
+I was trembling--excitement, of course--only children and women
+and foreigners ever feel afraid!  It took me half a minute to
+find the match box, and the other half to strike a light.
+
+Narayan Singh was standing by the end of the table.  He was
+wiping blood off his bayonet with a piece of newspaper.  He
+looked cool enough to have carried the paper in his pocket for
+that purpose.  I got up, feeling ashamed to be seen crouching on
+the floor.  But Narayan Singh smiled approval.
+
+"You did well, sahib.  All men are equal in the dark.  Until he
+fired first there was nothing wise to do but hide."
+
+"How long have you been here?" I asked.
+
+"Five minutes.  I only waited for a sure thrust.  But hah? the
+sahib feels like a dead man come to life again, eh?  Well I know
+that feeling!"
+
+The match burned my fingers.  I struck another.  As I did that
+Grim stood in the doorway, smiling.
+
+"Is he dead?" he asked.
+
+"Surely, sahib.  Shall I go now and get that other one--that
+Omar Mahmoud?"
+
+"No need," said Grim.  "They rounded him up five minutes after he
+had found Noureddin."
+
+"Then have I done all that was required of me?"
+
+"No, Narayan Singh.  You haven't shaken hands with me yet."
+
+"Thank you, Jimgrim."
+
+The match went out.  I struck a third one.  Grim turned to me.
+
+"Hungry?"
+
+"Sleepy."
+
+"Oh, to hell with sleep!  Let's bring old Scharnhoff into the
+other room, dig out some eats and drinks, and get a story from
+him.  All right, Narayan Singh;  there'll be a guard here in
+ten minutes to take charge of that body.  After that, dismiss.
+I'll report you to Colonel Goodenough for being a damned
+good soldier."
+
+"My colonel sahib knew that years ago," the great Sikh answered
+quietly.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Jimgrim and Allah's Peace, by Talbot Mundy
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMGRIM AND ALLAH'S PEACE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 11357.txt or 11357.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/3/5/11357/
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/11357.zip b/old/11357.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..480b174
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11357.zip