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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lion of Petra, 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: The Lion of Petra
+
+Author: Talbot Mundy
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2006 [EBook #19307]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LION OF PETRA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark R. Jaqua
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LION OF PETRA
+
+       by Talbot Mundy
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I.    "Allah Makes All Things Easy!"
+II.   "Trust in God, But Tie Your Camel!"
+III.  "Ali Higg's Brains Live in a Black Tent!"
+IV.   "Go and Ask the Kites, Then, At Dat Ras!"
+V.    "Let That Mother of Snakes Beware!"
+VI.   "Him and Me--Same Father!"
+VII.  "You Got Cold Feet?"
+VIII. "He Cools His Wrath in the Moonlight, Communing with Allah!"
+IX.   "I Think We've Got the Lion of Petra on the Hip!"
+X.    "There's No Room for Two of You!"
+XI.   "That We Make a Profit from This Venture?"
+XII.  "Yet I Forgot to Speak of the Twenty Aeroplanes!"
+XIII. "There is a Trick to Ruling!"
+
+------------
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"Allah Makes All Things Easy!"
+
+
+
+This isn't an animal story. No lions live at Petra nowadays,
+at any rate, no four-legged ones; none could have survived
+competition with the biped. Unquestionably there were tamer,
+gentler, less assertive lions there once, real yellow cats with
+no worse inconveniences for the casual stranger than teeth,
+claws, and appetites.
+
+The Assyrian kings used to come and hunt near Petra, and brag
+about it afterward; after you have well discounted the lies they
+made their sculptors tell on huge stone monoliths when they got
+back home, they remain a pretty peppery line of potentates. But
+for imagination, self-esteem, ambition, gall, and picturesque
+depravity they were children--mere chickens--compared to the
+modern gentleman whom Grim and I met up with A.D. 1920.
+
+You can't begin at the beginning of a tale like this, because its
+roots reach too far back into ancient history. If, on the other
+hand, you elect to start at the end and work backward the
+predicament confronts you that there wasn't any end, nor
+any in sight.
+
+As long as the Lion of Petra has a desert all about him and a
+choice of caves, a camel within reach, and enough health to keep
+him feeling normal--never mind whose camel it is, nor what power
+claims to control the desert--there will be trouble for somebody
+and sport for him.
+
+So, since it can have no end and no beginning, you might define
+this as an episode--a mere interval between pipes, as it were, in
+the amusing career of Ali Higg ben Jhebel ben Hashim, self-styled
+Lion of Petra, Lord of the Wells, Chief of the Chiefs of the
+Desert, and Beloved of the Prophet of Al-Islam; not forgetting,
+though, that his career was even supposed to amuse his victims or
+competitors. The fun is his, the fury other people's.
+
+The beginning as concerns me was when I moved into quarters in
+Grim's mess in Jerusalem. As a civilian and a foreigner I could
+not have done that, of course, if it had been a real mess; but
+Grim, who gets fun out of side-stepping all regulations, had
+established a sort of semi-military boarding-house for junior
+officers who were tired of tents, and he was too high up in the
+Intelligence Department for anybody less than the administrator
+to interfere with him openly.
+
+He did exactly as he pleased in that and a great many other
+matters--did things that no British-born officer would have dared
+do (because they are all crazy about precedent) but what they
+were all very glad to have Grim do, because he was a bally
+American, don't you know, and it was dashed convenient and all
+that. And Grim was a mighty good fellow, even if he did like
+syrup on his sausages.
+
+The main point was that Grim was efficient. He delivered the
+goods. He was perfectly willing to quit at any time if they did
+not like his methods; and they did not want him to quit, because
+there is nothing on earth more convenient for men in charge
+of public affairs than to have a good man on their string
+who can be trusted to break all rules and use horse-sense on
+suitable occasion.
+
+I had been in the mess about two days, I think, doing nothing
+except read Grim's books and learn Arabic, when I noticed signs
+of impending activity. Camel saddles began to be brought out from
+somewhere behind the scenes, carefully examined, and put away
+again. Far-sighted men with the desert smell on them, which is
+more subtly stirring and romantic than all other smells, kept
+coming in to squat on the rugs in the library and talk with Grim
+about desert trails, and water, and what tribal feuds were in
+full swing and which were in abeyance.
+
+Then, about the fourth or fifth day, the best two camel saddles
+were thrown into a two-wheeled cart and sent off somewhere,
+along with a tent, camp-beds, canned goods, and all the usual
+paraphernalia a white man seems to need when he steps out of his
+cage into the wild.
+
+I was reading when that happened, sitting in the arm-chair facing
+Grim, suppressing the impulse to ask questions, and trying to
+appear unaware that anything was going on. But it seemed to me
+that there was too much provision made for one man, even for a
+month, and I had hopes. However, Grim is an aggravating cuss when
+so disposed, and he kept me waiting until the creaking of the
+departing cart-wheels and the blunt bad language of the man who
+drove the mules could no longer be heard through the open window.
+
+"Had enough excitement?" he asked me then.
+
+"There's not enough to be had," said I, pretending to continue reading.
+
+"Care to cut loose out of bounds?"
+
+"Try me."
+
+"The desert's no man's paradise this time o' year. Hotter than
+Billy-be- ----, and no cops looking after the traffic. They'll
+shoot a man for his shoe-leather."
+
+"Any man can have my shoes when I can't use 'em."
+
+"Heard of Petra?"
+
+I nodded as casually as I could. Everybody who has been to
+Palestine has heard of that place, where an inaccessible city was
+carved by the ancients out of solid rock, only to be utterly
+forgotten for centuries until Burkhardt rediscovered it.
+
+"Heard too much. I don't believe a word of it."
+
+"There's a problem there to be straightened out," said Grim.
+"It's away and away beyond the British border; too far south for
+the Damascus government to reach; too far north for the king of
+Mecca; too far east for us; much too far west for the Mespot
+outfit. East of the sun and west of the moon you might say.
+There's a sheikh there by the name of Ali Higg. I'm off to tackle
+him. Care to come?"
+
+"When do we start?"
+
+"Now, from here. Tonight from Hebron. I'll give you time to make
+your will, write to your lady-love, and crawl out if you care to.
+Ali Higg is hot stuff. Suppose we leave it this way: I'll go on
+to Hebron. You think it over. You can overtake me at Hebron any
+time before tonight, and if you do, all right; but if second
+thoughts make you squeamish about crucifixion--they tell me
+that Ali Higg makes a specialty of that--I'll say you're wise
+to stay where you are. In any case I start from Hebron tonight.
+Suit yourself."
+
+Any man in his senses would get squeamish about crucifixion if he
+sat long enough and thought about it. I hate to feel squeamish
+almost as much as I hate to sit and think, both being sure-fire
+ways of getting into trouble. The only safe thing I know is to
+follow opportunity and leave the man behind to do the worrying.
+More people die lingering, ghastly deaths in arm-chairs and in
+bed than anywhere.
+
+So I spoke of squeamishness and second thoughts with all the
+scorn that a man can use who hasn't yet tasted the enmity of the
+desert and felt the fear of its loneliness; and Grim, who never
+wastes time arguing with folk who don't intend to be convinced,
+laughed and got up.
+
+"You can't come along as a white man."
+
+"Produce the tar and feathers then," said I.
+
+"Have you forgotten your Hindustani?"
+
+"Some of it."
+
+"Think you can remember enough of it to deceive Arabs who never
+knew any at all?"
+
+"Narayan Singh was flattering me about it the other day."
+
+"I know he was," said Grim. "It was his suggestion we should take
+you with us."
+
+That illustrates perfectly Grim's way of letting out information
+in driblets. Evidently he had considered taking me on this trip
+as long as three days ago. It was equally news to me that the
+enormous Sikh, Narayan Singh, had any use for me; I had always
+supposed that he had accepted me on sufferance for Grim's sake,
+and that in his heart he scorned me as a tenderfoot. You can no
+more dig beneath the subtlety of Sikh politeness than you can
+overbear his truculence, and it is only by results that you may
+know your friend and recognize your enemy.
+
+Narayan Singh came in, and he did not permit any such weakness as
+a smile to escape him. When great things are being staged it is
+his peculiar delight to look wooden. Not even his alert brown
+eyes betrayed excitement. Like most Sikhs, he can stand looking
+straight in front of him and take in every detail of his
+surroundings; with his khaki sepoy uniform perfect down to the
+last crease, and his great black bristly beard groomed until it
+shone, he might have been ready for a dress parade.
+
+"Is everything ready?" asked Grim.
+
+"No, sahib. Suliman weeps."
+
+"Spank him! What's the matter this time?"
+
+"He has a friend. He demands to take the friend."
+
+"What?" I said. "Is that little ---- coming?"
+
+Two men in all Jerusalem, and only two that I knew of, had any
+kind of use for Suliman, the eight-year-old left-over from the
+war whom Grim had adopted in a fashion, and used in a way that
+scandalized the missionaries. He and Narayan Singh took delight
+in the brat's iniquities, seeing precocious intelligence where
+other folk denounced hereditary vice. I had a scar on my thumb
+where the little beast had bitten me on one occasion when I did
+not dare yell or retaliate, and, along with the majority, I
+condemned him cordially.
+
+"Who's his friend?" asked Grim.
+
+"Abdullah."
+
+Now Abdullah was worse than Suliman. He had no friends at all,
+anywhere, that anybody knew of. Possibly nine years old, he had
+picked up all the evil that a boy can learn behind the lines of a
+beaten Turkish army officered by Germans--which is almost the
+absolute of evil--and had added that to natural depravity.
+
+"Let Abdullah come," said Grim. "But beat Suliman first of all
+for weeping. Don't hit him with your hand, Narayan Singh, for
+that might hurt his feelings. Use a stick, and give him a grown
+man's beating."
+
+_"Atcha, sahib."_
+
+Two minutes later yells like a hungry bobcat's gave notice to
+whom it might concern that the Sikh was carrying out the letter
+of his orders. It was good music. Nevertheless, quite a little of
+the prospect was spoiled for me by the thought of keeping company
+with those two Jerusalem guttersnipes. I would have remonstrated,
+only for conviction, born of experience, that passengers
+shouldn't try to run the ship.
+
+"What shall I pack?" I asked.
+
+"Nothing," Grim answered. "Stick a toothbrush in your pocket.
+I've got soap, but you'll have small chance to use it."
+
+"You said I can't go as a white man."
+
+"True. We'll fix you up at Hebron. The Arabs have scads of
+proverbs," he answered, lighting a cigarette with a gesture
+peculiar to him at times when he is using words to hide his
+thoughts. "One of the best is: `Conceal thy tenets, thy treasure,
+and thy traveling.'
+
+"The Hebron road is not the road to Petra. We're going to
+joy-ride in the wrong direction, and leave Jerusalem guessing."
+
+Five minutes later Grim and I were on the back seat of a Ford
+car, bowling along the Hebron road under the glorious gray walls
+of Jerusalem; Narayan Singh and the two brats were enjoying our
+dust in another car behind us. There being no luggage there was
+nothing to excite passing curiosity, and we were not even envied
+by the officers condemned to dull routine work in the city.
+
+Grim was all smiles now, as he always is when he can leave the
+alleged delights of civilization and meet life where he likes
+it--out of bounds. He was still wearing his major's uniform,
+which made him look matter-of-fact and almost commonplace--one of
+a pattern, as they stamp all armies. But have you seen a strong
+swimmer on his way to the beach--a man who feels himself already
+in the sea, so that his clothes are no more than a loose shell
+that he will cast off presently? Don't you know how you see the
+man stripped already, as he feels himself?
+
+So it was with Grim that morning. Each time I looked away from
+him and glanced back it was a surprise to see the khaki uniform.
+
+The country, that about a week ago had been carpeted with flowers
+from end to end, was all bone-dry already, and the naked hills
+stood sharp and shimmering in heat-haze; one minute you could
+see the edges of ribbed rock like glittering gray monsters'
+skeletons, and the next they were gone in the dazzle, or hidden
+behind a whirling cloud of dust. Up there, three thousand feet
+above sea-level, there was still some sweetness in the air, but
+whenever we looked down through a gap in the range toward the
+Dead Sea Valley we could watch the oven-heat ascending like fumes
+above a bed of white-hot charcoal.
+
+"Some season for a picnic!" Grim commented, as cheerfully as if
+we were riding to a wedding. "You've time to crawl out yet. We
+cross that valley on the first leg, and that's merely a sample!"
+
+But it's easy enough to be driven forward in comfort to a new
+experience, never mind what past years have taught, nor what
+imagination can depict; if that were not so no new battles would
+be fought, and women would refuse to restock the world with
+trouble's makings. A reasoning animal man may be, but he isn't
+often guided by his reason, and at that early stage in the
+proceedings you couldn't have argued me out of them with anything
+much less persuasive than brute force.
+
+We rolled down the white road into Hebron in a cloud of dust
+before midday, and de Crespigny, the governor of the district,
+came out to greet us like old friends; for it was only a matter
+of weeks since he and we and some others had stood up to death
+together, and that tie has a way of binding closer than
+conventional associations do.
+
+But there were other friends who were equally glad to see us.
+Seventeen men came out from the shadow of the governorate wall,
+and stood in line to shake hands--and that is a lengthy business,
+for it is bad manners to be the first to let go of an Arab's
+hand, so that tact is required as well as patience; but it was
+well worth while standing in the sun repeating the back-and-forth
+rigmarole of Arab greeting if that meant that Ali Baba and his
+sixteen sons and grandsons were to be our companions on the
+adventure. They followed us at last into the governorate, and sat
+down on the hall carpet with the air of men who know what fun the
+future holds.
+
+Narayan Singh stayed out in the hall and looked them over. There
+is something in the make-up of the Sikh that, while it gives
+him to understand the strength and weaknesses of almost any
+alien race, yet constrains him more or less to the policeman's
+viewpoint. It isn't a moral viewpoint exactly; he doesn't
+invariably disapprove; but he isn't deceived as to the possibilities,
+and yields no jot or tittle of the upper hand if he can only once
+assume it. There was scant love lost between him and old Ali Baba.
+
+_"Nharak said,_* O ye thieves!" he remarked, looking down into
+Ali Baba's mild old eyes. [* Greeting!]
+
+Squatting in loose-flowing robes, princely bred, and almost
+saintly with his beautiful gray beard, the patriarch looked frail
+enough to be squashed under the Sikh's enormous thumb. But he
+wasn't much impressed.
+
+"God give thee good sense, Sikh!" was the prompt answer.
+
+"Fear Allah, and eschew infidelity while there is yet time!"
+boomed a man as big as the Sikh and a third as heavy again--Ali
+Baba's eldest son, a sunny-tempered rogue, as I knew from
+past experience.
+
+"Whose husband have you put to shame by fathering those two
+brats?" asked a third man.
+
+Mahommed that was, Ali Baba's youngest, who had saved Grim's life
+and mine at El-Kerak.
+
+They all laughed uproariously at that jest, so Mahommed repeated
+it more pointedly, and the Sikh turned his back to consider the
+sunshine through the open door and the rising heat within.
+Suliman and the other little gutter-snipe proceeded to make
+friends with the whole gang promptly, giving as good as they got
+in the way of repartee, and nearly starting a riot until Grim
+called Ali Baba into the dining-room, where de Crespigny was
+shaking up the second round of warm cocktails in a beer-bottle.
+
+Ali Baba chose to presume that the mixture was intended for
+himself. The instant de Crespigny set the bottle on the table the
+old rascal tipped the lot into a tumbler and drank it off.
+
+"It is good that the Koran says nothing against such stuff as
+this," he said, blinking as he set the glass down. "I have never
+tasted wine," he added righteously.
+
+"Are the camels ready?" asked Grim.
+
+"Surely."
+
+"What sort are they? Mangy old louse-food, I suppose, that had
+been turned out by the Jews to die?"
+
+"Allah! My sons have scoured Hebron for the best. Never were such
+camels! They are fit to make the pilgrimage to Mecca."
+
+"I suppose that means that the rent to be charged for each old
+camel for a month is more than the purchase-price of a really
+good one?"
+
+"The camels are mine, Jimgrim. I have bought them. Shall there be
+talk of renting between me and thee?"
+
+"Not yet. After I've seen the beasts. If they're as good as you
+say I'll pay you at the government rate for them per month."
+
+"Allah forbid! The camels are yours, Jimgrim. For me and mine
+there will no doubt be a profit from this venture without
+striking bargains between friends."
+
+Grim smiled at that like a merchant listening to a salesman. It
+is not often that you can tell the color of his eyes, but on
+occasions of that sort they look iron-gray and match the bushy
+eyebrows. He turned to de Crespigny.
+
+"Have you finished the census, 'Crep?"
+
+"Pretty nearly."
+
+"Have you got Ali Baba's property all listed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And that of his sons and grandsons?"
+
+"Every bit of it that's taxable."
+
+"Good. You hear that, Ali Baba? Now listen to me, you old rascal.
+When you complained to me the other day that there was no more
+thieving left to do in Hebron, I told you you're rich enough to
+quit, and you admitted it, you remember? You agreed with
+me that jail isn't a dignified place for a man of your years
+and experience."
+
+_"Taib._* Jail is not good." [* All right]
+
+"But you complained that you couldn't keep your gang out
+of mischief."
+
+"Truly. They are young. They have talent. Shall they sit still
+and grow fat like a pasha in the harem?"
+
+"So I said I'd find them some honest employment from time
+to time."
+
+"That was a good promise. Here already is employment. But you
+know, Jimgrim, they are used to rich profits in return for
+running risks. Danger is meat and drink to them."
+
+"They shall have their fill this trip!" said Grim.
+
+_"Taib._ But the reward should be proportionate."
+
+"Government wages!" Grim answered firmly. The old Arab smiled.
+
+"Under the Turks," he answered, "the officer pocketed the pay,
+and the men might help themselves."
+
+"D'you take me for a Turk?" asked Grim.
+
+"No, Jimgrim. I know you for a cunning contriver--an upsetter
+of calculations--but no Turk. Nevertheless, as I understand
+it, we go against Ali Higg, who calls himself the Lion of Petra.
+Sheikh Ali Higg has amassed a heap of plunder--hundreds of
+camels--merchandise taken from the caravans; that should be ours
+for the lifting. That is honest. That is reasonable."
+
+"Not a bit of it!" said Grim. "Let's get that clear before we
+start. I know your game. You've got it all fixed up between
+yourselves to stick with me until Ali Higg is _mafish_* and
+then bolt for the skyline with the plunder. Not a bit of
+use arguing--I know. You shouldn't talk your plans over in
+coffee-shop corners if you don't want me to hear of them."
+
+---------
+* Lit., nothing--corresponds to "na-poo" in Army slang.
+---------
+
+"Jimgrim, you are the devil!"
+
+"Maybe. But let's understand each other. Your property in Hebron
+is all listed. We'll call that a pledge for good behavior. You
+and your men are going to have government rifles served out to
+you that you'll have to account for afterward. Every rifle
+missing when we get back, and every scrap of loot you lay your
+hands on, will be charged double against your Hebron property. On
+the other hand, if any camels die you shall be reimbursed. Is
+that clear?"
+
+"Clear? A camel in the dark could understand it! But listen, Jimgrim."
+
+The venerable sire of rogues went and sat crosslegged on the
+window-seat, evidently meaning to debate the point. If an Arab
+loves one thing more than a standing argument it is that same
+thing sitting down.
+
+"We go against Ali Higg. That is no light matter. He will send
+his men against us, and that is no light matter either. They are
+heretics without hope of paradise and bent on seeing hell before
+their time! Surely they will come to loot our camp in the dark.
+Shall we not defend ourselves?"
+
+But Grim was not disposed to stumble into any traps.
+
+"Does a loaded camel on the level trouble about hills?" he asked.
+
+But Ali Baba waved the question aside as irrelevant.
+
+"They come. We defend ourselves. One, or maybe two, or even more
+of Ali Higg's scoundrels are slain. Behold a blood-feud! Jimgrim
+and his friends depart for El-Kudz* or elsewhere; Ali Baba and
+his sons have a feud on their hands. [* Jerusalem]
+
+"Now a feud, Jimgrim, has its price! It would do my old heart
+good to see the blood of Ali Higg and his heretics, for it is
+written that we should smite the heretic and spare not. But we
+should also despoil him of his goods, or the Prophet will not be
+pleased with us!"
+
+"That is the talk of a rooster on a dung-hill," Grim answered. "A
+rooster crows a mile away. Another answers with a challenge, but
+the camels draw the plow in ten fields between them. That is like
+a blood-feud between you and Ali Higg. Five days' march from here
+to Petra and how many deserts and tribes between?"
+
+"So much the easier to keep the loot when we have won it!"
+answered Ali Baba.
+
+"There's going to be no loot!" said Grim.
+
+"Allah!"
+
+"Would you rather have me send back to Jerusalem for regular police?"
+
+"Nay, Jimgrim! That would be the end of you, for those police
+would bungle everything. You need clever fellows with you if you
+go to sup with Ali Higg."
+
+"Well? Are you coming?"
+
+_"Taib._ We are ready. But--"
+
+"On my terms!"
+
+"But the pay is nothing!"
+
+"So is my pay nothing! This man"--he pointed to me--"gets no pay
+at all. Narayan Singh, the Sikh, gets less pay than a policeman."
+
+"Then what is the profit?"
+
+"For you? The honor of keeping your word. The privilege of making
+fair return for past immunity. Why aren't you and all your sons
+in jail this minute? Why did I invite you to come with me on this
+occasion? Because a man looks for friends where he has given
+favors! But if you consider you owe the administration nothing
+for forgiving all past offenses, very well; I'll look for
+friends elsewhere."
+
+"As for the administration, Jimgrim, may Allah turn its face
+cold! But you are another matter. We will come with you."
+
+"On my terms?"
+
+_"Taib."_
+
+You would have thought that settled it, especially as Ali Baba
+had already stated that he and his gang were prepared for the
+journey. But the East, that is swift to wrath, is very slow over
+a bargain, and it is a point of doctrine besides, all the way
+from Gibraltar to Japan, to keep an American waiting if you hope
+to get the better of him. Ali Baba settled down for a nice long
+talk; and you would have thought, to judge by Grim's expression,
+that he could ask for nothing better.
+
+The old rogue wanted to know among other things who would have
+the task of cleaning rifles on the journey. It seemed that he was
+long on sanctity, and not allowed by his religion to touch grease
+in any shape or form. Grim satisfied him on that point. Narayan
+Singh should clean the rifles.
+
+But that started him off on a new trail. He tried to see how much
+more he could impose on the Sikh, and suggested such matters as
+pitching tents, cooking, gathering firewood, cleaning pots and
+pans, leading the pack-camels, and a host of other necessary evils.
+
+"I shall issue all needful orders to each man," Grim told him
+bluntly at last.
+
+"And what is to be done to Ali Higg?"
+
+"That remains to be seen."
+
+"He is a devil with a cold face."
+
+"So I'm told."
+
+"He has more than a hundred armed men."
+
+"I heard twice that number."
+
+"And we shall be twenty?"
+
+"Twenty."
+
+"Oh, well, Allah makes all things easy!"
+
+But that was not the last word. There was still a custom of the
+country to be met and overcome.
+
+"Are the camels watered?" Grim asked.
+
+"Surely."
+
+"Packs all ready?"
+
+"All tied up-everything."
+
+"You're all ready to start, then?"
+
+_"Inshallah bukra."_ * [* Tomorrow, if God is willing.]
+
+"Tomorrow won't help me," said Grim. "We start tonight, at
+sundown. I'll go with you and look the camels over now."
+
+"But, Jimgrim, that is impossible. My son Mahommed's second wife
+is sick--"
+
+"Leave him behind, then, to look after her."
+
+"He will not consent to be left! Two of the camels are not paid
+for. The man comes in the morning for his money."
+
+"Leave the money here for him with Captain de Crespigny. We
+start tonight."
+
+"But what if the camels are not satisfactory?"
+
+"I shall see about other ones at once in that case. There'll be
+time if we look them over now. We start tonight."
+
+"I was thinking about some mules to carry an extra load or two."
+
+"No. Don't want mules. Too hot for them. Besides, there's no time
+for changing the loads over. We start tonight."
+
+"Tomorrow will be a better moon, Jimgrim."
+
+"We want a full moon when we get to Petra. We start tonight. Come
+along; show me the camels."
+
+"It is hot now. There is a bad stink in the stables. Better see
+them when it gets cooler."
+
+"I'm going now. Are you coming with me?"
+
+_"Taib._ I will show them to you. They are good ones. They
+will make you proud. Better give them another night's rest,
+though, Jimgrim."
+
+"Come along. Let's look at them."
+
+"One has a little girth-gall that--"
+
+"Ali Baba, you old rogue, we start tonight!" said Grim.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"Trust in God, But Tie Your Camel!"
+
+
+
+Do you believe in portents? I do. Whenever in the East the first
+two statements that a man has made in my presence, and that I
+have a chance to test, prove accurate, I go ahead and bet on all
+the rest. I don't mean by that that because a man has told the
+truth twice he won't lie on the third and fourth occasion; for
+the East is like the West in that respect, and usually seeks to
+turn its virtue into capital. But in a land where, as old King
+Solomon, who knew his crowd, remarked, "All men are liars," you
+must have some sort of weathervane by which to guide your
+national optimism, so I settled on that one long ago.
+
+Ali Baba had said there was a bad stink in the camel stables. A
+natural expert in hyperbole, he had not exaggerated in the least.
+And he had said that they were good camels; it was true. You did
+not need to be a camel expert to know those great long-legged
+Syrian beasts for winners. They looked like the first pick of a
+whole country-side, as he maintained they were--twenty-five of
+them in one string, representing an investment at after-war
+prices of the equivalent of five or six thousand U.S. dollars.
+
+"Who has been looted to pay for these?" asked Grim.
+
+"Allah! You have put an end to our proper business, Jimgrim. What
+could we do? We took our money and bought these camels, thinking
+to take a hand in the caravan trade."
+
+Grim looked into the old rogue's eyes and laughed.
+
+"In the land I come from," he said, "a capitalist with your
+predatory instincts would pay a lawyer by the year to tell him
+just how far he could safely go!"
+
+"A _wakil?"_ sneered Ali Baba. "The _wakils_ are all scoundrels.
+May Allah grind their bones! No honest man can have the advantage
+of such people."
+
+Grim looked the loads over, but there was nothing that any one
+could teach that gang about desert work. The goat-skin water-bags
+were newly patched and moist; the gear was all in good shape,
+none new, but all well-tested; and there was food enough in
+double sacks for twenty men for a month. Mujrim, Ali Baba's giant
+oldest son, picked up the loads and turned them over for Grim
+to examine with about as much apparent effort as if he were
+tossing pillows.
+
+Presently Grim laughed again, and looked at the line of fifteen
+other sons and grandsons, all squatting in the shadow of the wall
+watching us.
+
+"Which is the chief Lothario?" he asked; only he used a much more
+expressive word than that, because the East is frank where the
+West deals in innuendo, and vice versa.
+
+"They are all grown men," said Ali Baba. "There's a woman named
+Ayisha--a Badawi (Bedouin)--who has lately come from El-Maan with
+a caravan of wheat merchants."
+
+"How did you know that, Jimgrim?"
+
+"I'm told she has been buying things in the _suk_* that no Badawi
+could have use for, and has sent to Jerusalem for goods that
+could not be obtained here. I want to speak with her. Has any
+of your"--he smiled at the line of placidly contented sons
+again--"fathers of immorality made her acquaintance by some
+chance?" [* Bazaar]
+
+Every one of the sixteen sons instantly assumed an expression of
+far-away meditation. Ali Baba looked shocked.
+
+"I see!" said Grim. "Um-m-m! Well--none of my business. But one
+of you go fetch her to the governorate. You may tell her she's
+not in trouble, but an officer wants first-hand information
+about El-Maan."
+
+"Shall my sons be seen dragging a woman through the streets?"
+asked Ali Baba.
+
+"Let's hope not. But I don't care to send the police. I don't
+want to put her to indignity, you understand. Suppose you arrange
+it for me, eh?"
+
+"Listen, Jimgrim; that woman is a strange one! Men have spoken
+evil of her, but none can prove it. I have heard it said she has
+a devil. `Trust in God, but tie your camel!' says the Book.* The
+wisest among wise men would be he who let that woman alone!"
+
+------------
+* The Moslems attribute all their favorite proverbs to the
+Koran, whether they are in the book or, as in this case, not.
+------------
+
+"I suppose I'll have to get Captain de Crespigny to arrange it
+for me."
+
+_"Tfu!_* There is no need for a man like you to appeal to the
+governor. _Taib._ It shall be done. Have no doubt of it."
+
+----------
+* An exclamation of contempt
+----------
+
+"All right. Send her up to the governorate--and no delays, mind!
+We start tonight at sundown."
+
+On our way back we met Narayan Singh returning from the _suk_
+with parcels under his arm. That in itself was a sure sign of the
+lapse of contact with law and order; in Jerusalem he would have
+had an Arab carry them, because dignity is part of a Sikh's
+uniform. You realized without a word said that the uniform
+would be discarded presently. He looked me up and down as the
+quartermaster eyes a new recruit, and nodded in that exasperating
+way that makes you feel as if you had been ticketed and numbered.
+If Grim had not told me that the Sikh had been first to suggest
+taking me to Petra I would have insulted him painstakingly there
+and then; but you learn a certain amount of self-restraint, I
+suppose, before such a man as Narayan Singh ever approves of you
+for any purpose.
+
+He undid the parcels on the dining-room table in the governorate,
+and the next half-hour was spent in rigging me up as an
+ascetic-looking Indian Moslem, with the aid of a white turban
+wound over a cone-shaped cap, great horn-rimmed spectacles, and
+the comfortable, baggy garments that the un-modernized _hakim_
+wears over narrow cotton pantaloons.
+
+Over it all they put a loose, brown Bedouin cloak of camel-hair
+such as any man expecting to travel across deserts might invest
+in, whatever his nationality; it was hotter than Tophet, but, as
+the Arabs say, what keeps the heat in will also keep it out. It
+gives you a feeling of carrying your home around with you
+on your back, the way a snail totes its shell, and there are
+worse sensations.
+
+"Now consider yourself a while in the mirror, sahib," said
+Narayan Singh. "When a man knows how he looks he begins to
+act accordingly."
+
+Have you ever stopped to think how true that is? There was a
+full-length mirror upstairs in de Crespigny's bedroom, left
+behind by a German missionary's wife when the Turks and their
+friends stampeded, and Narayan Singh watched while I posed in
+front of it. Before many minutes, without any deliberately
+conscious effort on my part, gesture and attitude were molding
+themselves to fit the costume, in somewhat the same way, I
+suppose, that a farm-hand from Montenegro shapes himself into a
+new American store suit.
+
+"But it is necessary to remember!" warned Narayan Singh. "We
+should have done this sooner. There should be a photograph to
+carry with you, because a man forgets his own appearance where
+there are no mirrors and none others resembling himself.
+Henceforward, sahib, sleeping or waking, be a _hakim!_ There is a
+chest of medicines downstairs."
+
+By the time I had got down Grim had already changed into Bedouin
+dress--stepped simply out of one world into another. All he does
+is to stain his eyebrows dark, put on the clothes, and cease to
+resemble anything on earth except a desert-born Arab. I don't
+know how long he was learning to make the transformation, but no
+man could learn the trick in twenty years unless he loved the
+desert and the sinewy men who live in it.
+
+He looked me over again narrowly, and then decided I must return
+upstairs and shave my head. "The only chance you've got of not
+being pulled apart between four camels, or pushed over a
+precipice, is to look like darwaish. Have Narayan Singh stain the
+back of your neck with henna--not too much of it--just a
+little--you're from Lahore, you know--a university product."
+
+By the time I had carried out that order I could not even
+recognize myself without the turban on. "No matter how many
+mistakes now, Sahib!" grinned the Sikh. "None but a crazy Moslem
+would travel in this sun with his head shaved. Better put a cloth
+inside the cap, thus, for greater safety."
+
+The only other thing Grim did to me was to throw away my toothbrush.
+
+"They're suspicious in these parts," he said. "They'd figure it
+was hog-bristles. You'll have to make shift with a chewed stick,
+and pick your teeth between times with a dagger the way the rest
+of us do. Hello! Here she comes. You do the honors, 'Crep; we're
+in the game from now on."
+
+De Crespigny went to the door and Grim and I squatted cross-legged
+in the window-seat. I tried to feel like a middle-aged native
+of the East under the rule of that twenty-six-year-old governor;
+but it couldn't be done. I don't know yet what the sensations
+are of, say, a bachelor of arts of Lahore University who has
+to take orders from a British subaltern. I expect you have
+to leave off pretending and really be an Indian to find out
+that; otherwise your liking for the fellow himself offsets
+reason. No white man could have helped liking young de Crespigny.
+
+He came in after a minute perfectly self-possessed, leading a
+young woman who took your breath away. I have heard all the usual
+stories about the desert women being hags, but every one of them
+was pure fiction to me from that minute. If all the rest were
+really what men said of them, this one was sufficiently amazing
+to redeem the lot. De Crespigny addressed her as Princess, and
+she may have really ranked as one for all I know.
+
+She sat on a chair, rather awkwardly, as if not used to it, and
+we stared at her like a row of owls, she studying us in return,
+quite unabashed. The Badawi don't wear veils, and are not in the
+least ashamed to air their curiosity. She stared uncommonly hard
+at Grim.
+
+Of middle height, supple and slender, with the grace of all
+outdoors, smiling with a dignity that did not challenge and yet
+seemed to arm her against impertinence, not very dark, except
+for her long eyelashes--I have seen Italians and Greeks much
+darker--she somewhat resembled the American Indian, only that her
+face was more mobile.
+
+Part of her beauty was sheer art, contrived by the cunning arrangement
+of the shawl on her head, and kohl on her eyelashes.  That young
+woman knew every trick of deportment down to the outward thrust
+of a shapely bare foot in an upturned Turkish slipper. Her clothing
+was linen, not black cotton that Bedouin women usually wear, and
+much of it was marvelously hand-embroidered; but all the jewelry
+she wore was a necklace made of gold coins. It gave a finishing
+touch of opulence that is the crown of finished art.
+
+But it was her eyes that took your breath away, and she was
+perfectly aware of it; she used them as the desert does all its
+weapons, frankly and without reluctance, sparing no consideration
+for the weak--rather looking for weakness to take advantage of
+it. They were wise--dark, deadly wise--alight with youth, and yet
+amazingly acquainted with all evil that is older than the world.
+She was obviously not in the least afraid of us.
+
+"You are from El-Maan?" asked de Crespigny, and she nodded.
+
+"Did you come all this way alone?"
+
+"No woman travels the desert alone."
+
+"Tell me how you got here."
+
+"You know how I got here. I came with a caravan that carried
+wheat--the wife of the sheikh of the caravan consenting."
+
+She spoke the clean concrete Arabic of the desert, that has a
+distinct word for everything, and for every phase of everything
+--another speech altogether from the jargon of the towns.
+
+"Are they friends of yours?"
+
+"Who travels with enemies?"
+
+"Did you know them, I mean, before you came with them?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you are not from El-Maan?"
+
+"Who said I was?"
+
+"I thought you did."
+
+"Nay, the words were yours, khawaja." * [* Lit., gentleman-sir]
+
+"Please tell me where you come from."
+
+"From beyond El-Maan."
+
+She made a gesture with one hand and her shoulder that suggested
+illimitable distances.
+
+"From which place beyond El-Maan?"
+
+She laughed, and you felt she did it not in self-defense, but out
+of sheer amusement.
+
+"Ask the jackal where his hole is! My people live in tents."
+
+"Well, Princess, tell me, at any rate, what you are doing here in
+El-Kalil." [Hebron]
+
+"Ask El-Kalil. The whole _suk_ talks of me. I have made purchases."
+
+"That's what I'm getting at. You've made some unusual purchases,
+and you've sent to Jerusalem for things that people don't use as
+a rule in tents out in the desert--silk stockings, for instance,
+and a phonograph with special records, and soft pillows, and
+writing-paper, and odds and ends like that. Do you use those things?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Do you use books in French and English?"
+
+She hesitated. It was the first time she had not seemed perfectly
+at ease.
+
+"Can you even read Arabic?"
+
+She did not answer.
+
+"Then the books, at any rate, are meant for some one else? Tell
+me who that some one is."
+
+"Allah!" she exploded "May I not buy what I will, if I pay
+for it?"
+
+But that was a false move. You can't upset the young British
+officer by storming at him. De Crespigny smiled, and came back at
+her with his next question suddenly.
+
+"Are not those things for the wife of Ali Higg, and are you not
+from Petra?"
+
+"If you know so surely whence I come, why do you ask me?"
+
+"Are you a slave?"
+
+"Allah!"
+
+"How many wives has Ali Higg?"
+
+"How should I know?"
+
+"Because I think you are one of his wives. Is that not so?"
+
+"I am Ayisha. I claim Your Honor's protection."
+
+That was no false move. It was so nearly a checkmate that de
+Crespigny went to the sideboard for the silver box of cigarettes,
+to offer her one and gain time for thought.
+
+Ever since the days of Ruth, and no doubt long before that, it
+has been the first law of the desert that man or woman claiming
+protection can no longer be treated as an enemy. It is possibly
+the earliest form of freemasonry, and it survives.
+
+Arab history is full of instances of a warrior laying down his
+life for an enemy who has claimed protection from him. And young
+de Crespigny was ruler of the most unruly city in the Near East
+because he understood better than most men how to respect Arab
+prejudices. Ayisha accepted a cigarette, fitted it into a long
+amber tube, and watched him.
+
+"Very well," he said at last. "If I protect you you must answer
+questions. Are you Ali Higg's wife?"
+
+"Have I Your Honor's promise of protection?"
+
+"Yes. Are you Ali Higg's wife?"
+
+"I am his second wife."
+
+"Thought so! And you've been sent to make purchases for
+number one?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"How do you propose to convey all these things back to Petra?"
+
+"Surely it is not difficult now that I am promised Your
+Honor's protection!"
+
+"My district extends half-way to Beersheba and to the eastward as
+far as the shore of the Dead Sea--no farther," said de Crespigny.
+
+"I can wait. I must wait for the purchases from Jerusalem. Sooner
+or later there will be a caravan across the desert to El-Maan. I
+have two servants here to make inquiries for me."
+
+"Yes, and two more who went to Jerusalem. Four men. Tell me this,
+Princess Ayisha: how came Ali Higg to trust you, alone with four
+men, on such a long and difficult journey?"
+
+"Is he not my lord?"
+
+"But the men?"
+
+"Is he not also their lord? And he holds their wives and sons in
+trust at Petra."
+
+"You'll admit it's unusual?"
+
+"Do you find it strange that a woman should be faithful to
+her lord?"
+
+"But to Ali Higg? He has a name--a reputation! How many wives
+has he?"
+
+"The Koran permits but four. The others are not wives."
+
+"And you're going back?"
+
+_"Inshallah."_ [If God is willing.]
+
+It was obvious that no alternative would have the least appeal
+for her.
+
+"Well, your movements have all been known to me. Your men have
+been watched. The word from Jerusalem is that the two you sent
+there have made their purchases. I heard over the telephone that
+they are on their way here. A suggestion has been made to me
+that you five might be held here as hostages to bring Ali
+Higg to terms."
+
+She laughed. "He would raid, and make prisoners, ten for one. If
+an exchange were not made promptly his prisoners would be put to
+torture, and--"
+
+De Crespigny saw fit to bring the conversation back to its other
+foot, as it were. Not the whole British Army was in a position
+just then to impose its will on Ali Higg, so certainly de
+Crespigny was not; and if you are any kind of real diplomatist,
+with a career in front of you, you don't talk fight unless you
+mean it.
+
+"But of course, as you've claimed my protection I couldn't dream
+of that," he assured her. "Now, is there anything else you want
+after those men get here from Jerusalem?"
+
+"Nothing else."
+
+"They'll be here in an hour or so. Would you be ready to leave at
+once for Petra?"
+
+"As soon as I can join a caravan."
+
+"Today? This evening, for instance?"
+
+"Allah provide it!"
+
+"That's settled, then."
+
+He turned toward Grim.
+
+"This is Sheik Hajji,* Jimgrim bin Yazid of El-Abdeh, who has
+twice made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He is my honored friend. He
+starts tonight with a caravan toward Petra. You may travel with
+him and be in safe hands all the way."
+
+----------
+* One who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca
+----------
+
+She eyed Grim curiously, startled, it seemed to me. Then her
+expression changed slowly to excitement, followed by a look of
+baffling wisdom, as much as to say she knew something and would
+not tell. I don't think it was his name that startled her; that
+sounded Arabic enough.
+
+"What business has he at Petra?" she asked.
+
+De Crespigny let Grim answer that conundrum.
+
+_"Ya sit Ayisha,"_* said Grim, "I carry a letter to Sheikh Ali
+Higg from some one in Arabia. I will deliver you along with the
+letter. You may have a place in my caravan--provided you have
+camels, provisions, and a litter," he added; for the surest way
+to increase her already alert suspicion would have been to offer
+to provide everything. [* O lady Ayisha.]
+
+"Let me see the letter!"
+
+Grim produced one instantly--an envelop with a big red seal on
+it. It was marked across the top in large letters "On His
+Majesty's Service," but addressed in Arabic to somebody, and as
+she could not read she was satisfied.
+
+"Ali Higg will hold you answerable for my safety if he has to
+destroy armies to reach you!" she said simply.
+
+_"Ya sit Ayisha,"_ Grim answered solemnly, "may Allah turn my
+face cold if Sheikh Ali Higg shall have fault to find with me in
+this matter!"
+
+"How many is in your caravan?" she asked. "Twenty armed men."
+
+She nodded. "I will pay for my place in the caravan, according to
+the custom--the half now and the other half on arrival."
+
+Without gesture, without moving a muscle of his face, Grim
+turned down that proposal desert-fashion, that is emphatically,
+with a reservation.
+
+_"Ya sit Ayisha,_ may Allah do so to me, and more, if I will
+accept a price for this. Between Ali Higg and me let this
+thing be."
+
+_"Taib,"_ she answered. "My men shall look for camels. I will go
+with you tonight."
+
+She went away then, leaving a smile behind her that would have
+coaxed the Sphinx, and rode down-street toward the ancient city
+on a big gray donkey guarded by two Bedouins armed with swords
+and spears.
+
+"Did I do all right?" asked de Crespigny.
+
+"Fine!" Grim answered. "You'll be ruling England one of these
+days, 'Crep. Good job I had that letter to show her, though,
+wasn't it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"Ali Higg's Brains Live in a Black Tent!"
+
+
+I hate to have to admit that there was any virtue in Suliman, or
+anything other than vice in his new chum Abdullah. The two little
+devils stole my cigarettes, and deviled me unmercifully about my
+disguise, making improper jokes, at which Ali Baba and his sons
+laughed uproariously, and which they recalled at intervals for
+days afterwards.
+
+But almost immediately after the "lady Ayisha" had left the
+governorate I was forced to admit that the brats were useful. In
+their own way they served Grim as a pair of hounds work for a man
+out hunting rabbits, for they could penetrate places and be
+welcome where a grown man would be killed--at the very least--for
+intruding or attempting to intrude. Harems, for instance. And
+they could be naive and wheedling toward a woman when they chose.
+
+They came in with their tongues hanging out like a pair of pups,
+and sticky with the awful stuff men sell for candy in the
+El-Kalil bazaars. Evidently some woman had been pumping them
+for information, and Grim made them stand in front of him
+on the carpet.
+
+"Well?"
+
+They both spoke at once. Now and then one paused for breath and
+then the other, but on the whole it was a neck-and-neck race to
+tell the tale first.
+
+"There was a woman in the _suk_ who had heard of Jimgrim but
+never saw him, and she bought us sweets and took us to her house,
+and she asked us questions about Jimgrim, and we told lies, and
+she asked us what we were doing in El-Kalil, and we said nothing,
+and she said _wallah!_ That was very little, and then she asked
+us all over again about Jimgrim. (_Gasp_)
+
+"So we said Jimgrim has already gone back to Jerusalem, and she
+did not believe; but we swore by the beard of the Prophet, so she
+said what were we going to do now, and we said we would go to the
+governorate and beg for bread. (_Gasp_)
+
+"So she said what next, and we said there is a great sheikh here
+from Arabia, who makes a journey to Petra, and _inshallah_ he
+will take us with him, and she said why did we want to go to
+Petra, and we said because our mothers were carried off by the
+Turks and sold to the Arabs and _inshallah_ we should find them
+near Petra. (_Gasp_)"
+
+"So far, good!" said Grim. "That's what she got out of you. Now
+what did you get out of her?"
+
+"She said _wallah!_ There is Ali Higg at Petra and he grinds the
+face of the poor and is a great chief and will make us prisoners
+and sell us for slaves or have us turned into eunuchs, and we
+said (_gasp_) that we are _msakin_* and not afraid of Ali Higg
+and he may as well have us as anybody, and if it is written that
+we shall be eunuchs then it is written and who shall change it?
+(_Gasp_) [* Poverty-stricken]
+
+"And she said what made us think that the great sheikh will take
+us to Petra, and we said because he had promised, but he may be a
+big liar and we don't know yet."
+
+"What kind of woman is she?" Grim asked.
+
+"A big fat woman with a belly like two waterbags one on top of
+the other, thus!"
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"She is the wife of Ismail ben Rafiki, the wool-dealer."
+
+"Uh-huh. Yes. Go on."
+
+"So she said we should come back here and find out if the sheikh
+will really take us and say to the sheikh (_gasp_) there is a
+lady in the city who can be of service to him in a certain matter
+and he should come back with us and we should lead him to the
+house and she will give us money and the sheikh will understand."
+
+"Good!" pronounced Grim. "Not half bad. Just for that I'll go
+with you."
+
+He winked at de Crespigny, nodded to me, pulled on a black-and-white
+striped Bedouin cloak, and went off with them at once. Whereat
+Narayan Singh came in, looking like another person altogether,
+although, if anything, bigger than before. He had got out of
+uniform and was dressed in a medley of Indian and Arab costume
+that made him look like one of those slaves in the "Arabian Nights"
+who cut off the heads of women. All he needed was a big curved
+simitar to fill the bill.
+
+"Henceforth I am the _hakim's_ servant," he said, showing his
+teeth in an enormous grin. "Only," he added, "since it will be I
+who instruct the _hakim,_ in secret the sahib must listen to me."
+
+He got out the medicine-chest, and being a Sikh with all of a
+soldier's opinion of civilians proposed to teach me what the
+labels on the little bottles stood for. Even he laughed after a
+minute or two, when he had got himself thoroughly sewed up and
+called each bottle by its wrong name.
+
+"Ah! What does it matter!" he exclaimed at last.  "Sore
+eyes--broken leg--boils--knife-wound--let it be all one. Give
+episin salts--always episin. Then, if we are long in one place,
+so that a sick man comes a second time, swearing grievously
+because of episin, give croton. That person will not come again,
+but the fame of the _hakim_ will spread far and wide."
+
+"You'd much better teach me how a _hakim_ sits a camel,"
+I suggested.
+
+"All ways, sahib, for the _hakim_ is not seldom a _bunnia_ whose
+parents bought him education. Softer than wax is the rump of a
+_bunnia_ and one who reads books. He sits this way until the
+boils break out, and then that way until the skin chafes. Then
+presently he lies across the saddle on his belly and either prays
+or curses, according as his spirit is pious or otherwise. But the
+camel continues to proceed, since that is its nature."
+
+"Well, go on, instruct the _hakim,_ then. The sahib listens."
+
+"It is well to remember there will be with us, besides those
+seventeen thieves of this place, who know who we truly are, four
+sons of the desert and a woman. Now the woman, being woman, and
+they are all alike, will take note of the _hakim_ and pretend to
+little sickness for the sake of making talk. Whereas the men,
+being, as it were, the guardians of the woman, will be seized
+with pride and jealousy. So that what with the woman's curiosity
+and the men's watchfulness there will be great need for discretion."
+
+"How would you define discretion?"
+
+"In the case of the woman, insolence. In the case of the men, a
+good humor--with perhaps some such physic for quarrelsomeness as
+croton oil administered in their food on suitable occasion.
+Whenever they get suspicious, sahib, drench their food!
+
+"When the woman makes great eyes and shams complaints, tell her
+what their cursed Prophet said of women. Never mind whether he
+said it or not, sahib, for she will not know the truth of it,
+never having read the book. Only speak evil of all women, and so
+we shall come to Ali Higg's nest in good repute."
+
+"All right. I'll try not to flirt with the lady. What next?"
+
+"The sahib will be accused of being a Persian, and will be
+insulted accordingly, for none loves a Persian in this land,
+Islam having two chief sects, of which the Persians chose to
+adopt the Shia faith, which is not in favor with the Sunni, who
+are most numerous and most fanatic. The less the Sunni knows of
+his religion the more he despises a Shia; and when these people
+despise they steal, strike, abuse, and act otherwise unseemly."
+
+"But I'm not supposed to be a Persian, am I?"
+
+"No, for you could never act a Persian's part. But they will
+accuse you of being a Persian because you are an Indian, as I
+have heard a man called a dago because he was born somewhere
+south of a certain line. When it has been established that you
+are no Persian, but an Indian, it must be remembered that there
+are only two kinds of Indians whom they do not despise, and they
+are Sikhs and Pathans--Sikhs, because a Sikh can smite three
+Arabs with one hand, and the Pathan for much the same reason.
+
+"But I must not go as a Sikh because of the religious difficulty;
+neither may you be a Pathan, because you in no way resemble one,
+nor do you speak the Pushtu tongue. But I will be a Pathan,
+because I can speak that language; therefore they will respect me
+as a man prone to fight readily and well. And knowing that no
+Pathan would demean himself by being servant to a man of no
+account, they will more readily respect you, although you are
+neither Sikh nor yet Pathan but are supposed to be a Punjabi
+Mussulman. Therefore, sahib, you must take a middle course
+between peace and pugnacity, pretending on the one hand to
+restrain my quarrelsomeness, yet on the other depending for
+safety on my readiness to take offense--as a man who is
+accustomed to a servant of mettle."
+
+The rest of his lecture was about niceties of behavior, religious
+observances, and so on. It was a mystery how that man had never
+been promoted. He seemed to have eyes for everything and a memory
+for everything that he had ever observed. The Sikh despises the
+religion of Islam quite as fervently as the follower of the
+Prophet scorns Sikhism; yet he seemed familiar with every detail
+of Moslem custom, and knew to what extent geography affected it.
+The point he seemed to understand best was how to turn the flank
+of ignorant fanaticism.
+
+"Whenever you make a mistake, sahib, remember this: you are
+Darwaish, which is a man who is privileged, having set behind him
+all unimportant matters. So when you are accused of not observing
+this or that, or of acting with impropriety, confound the Bedouin
+always by sneering at their ignorance, saying that where you come
+from men know what is proper. And Jimgrim, having truly made
+the pilgrimage to Mecca, will confound them likewise, having
+knowledge, whereas most of these rascals only know by hearsay."
+
+I suppose he lectured me for two hours, until Grim came in
+looking pleased with himself, followed by the two infants looking
+much more pleased. You can't mistake the adventurous air of an
+eight-year-old with money hidden on his person, whatever his
+nationality may be. De Crespigny followed them in to learn
+the news.
+
+"Know anything about old Rafiki, the wool-merchant?" Grim asked.
+
+"Steady-going old party," said de Crespigny. "Says his prayers,
+cheats his customers, keeps the curfew law, and runs a three-wife
+establishment, I believe, in three parts of town, all according
+to the Book. Why, have you run foul of him?"
+
+"He has offered me ten thousand piastres to poison Ali Higg"
+
+"Show me the money!" laughed de Crespigny.
+
+"He was hardly as previous as that. His head wife bribed these
+kids to bring me to the house, and the old boy met me in the
+wool-store. Said he'd been told I was going to Petra.
+
+"First suggestion he made was that I should take my time on the
+road and waylay a caravan that's sure to follow. He'd no idea,
+of course, that the lady Ayisha is to travel with me. His
+little scheme is to provide her with camels and men on his own
+account--mean camels and his own men, who would run away at the
+first sign of trouble.
+
+"He assumes that I'm a gay Lochinvar who'd like nothing better
+than to carry off the lady. He wants her carried off and ravished
+as a spite for Ali Higg.
+
+"Well, I didn't exactly fall for that; said I couldn't very well
+approach Ali Higg afterward, and he admitted that relations in
+that case might be kind o' strained. So he proposed next that I
+should meet up with Ali Higg and poison him. He offered to
+supply the poison--stuff that he said would make him die slowly
+in agony."
+
+"What's his quarrel with Ali Higg?"
+
+"Seems the old boy had a daughter who was the apple of his
+eye--or so he said. She was on her way down to Egypt; and I
+suspect she did not travel by train because she's been bought by
+some beast of a pasha. They didn't want inquiries by passport
+people, or any interfering bunk like that.
+
+"Anyhow, Ali Higg is quite a ladies' man, and he happened to be
+crossing the map with part of his gang of thieves somewhere down
+Beersheba way. He agreed with the pasha on the point of taste and
+carried off the girl. So old wool-merchant Rafiki had to refund
+the purchase-price--not that he admitted that to me, of course.
+
+"I suspect that's where the rub comes. If he hadn't been selling
+the girl illegally he'd surely have complained to you about the
+rape in the first instance. As it was he couldn't think of
+anything except revenge.
+
+"I asked him if he'd take the girl back, and he said no, what
+should he do with her? What he wants is money, or else the
+lingering death of Ali Higg; and seeing it's about as easy to get
+money out of that gentleman as cream cheese out of the moon,
+he's willing to part with a hundred pounds for either of two
+things--the rape of Ayisha or the death of Ali Higg. On those
+terms he vows he'd die contented."
+
+"If he finds out that Ayisha goes with you tonight he'll try to
+corrupt old Ali Baba or one of his sons," said de Crespigny.
+
+"Yes, and he probably will find it out. But corrupting Ali Baba
+would take time and a lot of money; and none of his sons dares do
+a thing without the old man's approval. I feel fairly sure of
+the gang. Point is, do you know of any other gang that the
+wool-merchant could hire right now to attack us somewhere
+on the road?"
+
+"There's none in Hebron that would dare. Plenty outside in
+the villages."
+
+"The lady Ayisha has probably told that she's going tonight,"
+said Grim. "Old Woolly-wits might not find it out until too late,
+but I suspect his wives get all the gossip that's going. Then
+he'll have to work fast, because we shall move fast. What
+villages does he trade with chiefly?"
+
+"The Beni-Assan and the Beni-Khor."
+
+"Small crowds, both of them. Counting her four fanatics, we'll be
+four-and-twenty armed men, and tough in the bargain. Is there any
+outlying sheikh who owes old Rafiki money? Who are his wives,
+for instance?"
+
+"Now you're on the track," said de Crespigny. "One of his
+wives--the third, I think--is the daughter of Abbas Mahommed of
+the Beni-Yussuf tribe. Abbas Mahommed is always in debt to him."
+
+"Where's his place?"
+
+"Down near the lower end of the Dead Sea. Right near where you'll
+want to pitch your first camp. Abbas Mahommed sells him camel
+wool and hides, and goes in debt in advance regularly. This
+spring, for some reason, he delivered very little, and is still
+heavily in debt to Rafiki."
+
+"How many men has he?"
+
+"Might turn out fifty strong."
+
+"That's where we're due for our first trouble, then," said Grim.
+"We'll have to put one over on him. I know one way of spoiling
+friend Rafiki's game; old Woolly-wits'll fall sure. Suppose you
+go and see him, 'Crep, or send for him, and ask him straight out
+to provide camels for the lady Ayisha. He'll send his own men
+along with them, of course, and give them private instructions.
+Let's see--four men and a woman plus provisions, and he'll
+probably send five men with them--twelve camels, eh? Who else can
+raise seven good camels in this place?"
+
+"Easy. I know where to get 'em."
+
+"Good. Hire them then. Tie them in two strings and send them out
+with two policemen to wait for us ten miles along the road. Be
+sure they start ahead of us. Soon as we overtake them I'll
+dismiss Rafiki's men, who'll be nothing but his spies, swap the
+princess and her four men and their loads on to the fresh beasts,
+and leave the police to chase Rafiki's experts home again. Will
+you do that?"
+
+It was getting well along toward sunset, and de Crespigny had to
+hurry; but one of the advantages of being short-handed as
+administrator of a district is that you have to keep in intimate
+personal touch with all essentials, and there was not much that
+young de Crespigny did not know about getting what he wanted done
+in quick time. Within half an hour seven pretty good camels were
+sauntering southward out of Hebron, with a couple of phlegmatic
+Arab policemen perched on the two leaders, and the noses of the
+others tied to the empty saddles of the beasts ahead. They were
+neither as big nor in as good condition as old Ali Baba's
+wonderful string, but very likely better than any that the
+wool-merchant would provide, and by that much less likely to
+reduce our speed after we should make the change.
+
+"You see how easy it is," said Grim, "for a rascal like Ali Higg
+to upset a whole country-side. Here we are getting the crime of
+Palestine running in grooves, as it were, so's to regulate it
+first and then reduce it to reasonable proportions, and all that
+beast needs do is steal a woman and start civil war."
+
+But I did not see that the wool-merchant's private plans for
+vengeance amounted to civil war, and said so.
+
+"Hah! Wait and see!" said Grim. "Woolly-wits goes after vengeance.
+Somebody gets killed. That means a blood-feud. All the relatives
+of the slain man--whether it's Ali Higg or one of his retainers
+doesn't matter--take up arms; and all the relatives of Woolly-wits
+do ditto. For each man killed in the war that follows the other
+side is out for the equivalent in life or goods.  Village after
+village gets drawn in.
+
+"Suppose that sheikh at the south end of the Dead Sea who's in
+debt to Woolly-wits jumps at the chance to loot our caravan and
+bag the lady, we'll be lucky if one or two of our men don't get
+scuppered. That means a blood-feud between that village and all
+old Ali Baba's clan.
+
+"But that isn't nearly all, nor nearly the worst of it. Ali Higg
+learns next that the Dead Sea outfit have tried to waylay his
+wife; so he takes the warpath. And instead of that making a
+three-cornered fight of it, it might mean an offensive alliance
+between Ali Higg and Ali Baba's gang.
+
+"Civil war would be a very mild name for that. There'd be brains
+brought to bear on it. The administration might have to spend
+twenty or thirty thousand pounds and jail a lot of estimable
+Arabs. The thing to do is to stop that kind of thing before
+it happens."
+
+"By corraling Ali Higg, I suppose?" said I.
+
+"Can't very well do that. He's a free man. Of course he's got no
+right to cross our border and steal women, but, on the other
+hand, he's made himself boss of a district that no other
+government pretends to control.
+
+"If we can catch him our side of the line he's our meat; but
+that's reciprocal; if he can catch us on his side there's no law
+to prevent his doing what he likes with us. We've got to use our
+heads with Master Ali Higg."
+
+I think that was the first time it really dawned on me that this
+venture was going to be dangerous. Even so, the calmness with
+which Grim considered leaving law and all the means of its
+enforcement behind and crossing deserts with a gang of known
+thieves for accomplices took most of the edge off it.
+
+You simply couldn't feel scared when that fellow smiled and
+exposed the risks in detail, even with dark coming on and the
+sound of camels being made to kneel outside the window. For Ali
+Baba had become convinced at last that Grim really intended to
+start that night, and, making a virtue of necessity, was better
+than punctual. The camels were groaning and swearing, as they
+always do at the prospect of a night's work.
+
+"As I see it, any tribe out there has as much right to elect Ali
+Higg leader as you and I have to elect a president," said Grim.
+"I don't suppose they did elect him, but they'll claim they did.
+The point is, he's got himself elected somehow. We've no veto. I
+don't hold with murder; it sets a bad example and turns loose a
+horde of individual trouble-makers who were under something like
+control before. It might be easy to have him murdered; you see
+how easy old Woolly-wits thought it might be. Murder has always
+been the solution of politics in the Old World right down to
+date; and look where they're at in consequence!"
+
+"You must have some idea to go on," I suggested.
+
+"What's your plan?"
+
+"They say I look a bit like Ali Higg."
+
+"But what then? Haven't you a plan--nothing you mean to try
+first?"
+
+"Oh yes. _Chercher la femme."_
+
+"So there's a woman in it?"
+
+"You bet! Ali Higg's no born statesman. His brains live in a
+black tent, and he keeps 'em encouraged with French and English
+books bought in Jerusalem--silk stockings--gramophones--all kinds
+of things."
+
+"What is she--a Turk? I've heard some of them are educated nowadays."
+
+"No. And she never was a Turk. She was born in Bulgaria of
+Greco-Russo-Bulgar parents, educated at Roberts College and
+Columbia University, New York, married to a drummer in the
+shredded-codfish business, divorced--on what grounds I don't
+know--divorced him, though, I believe came out here as war
+worker-teacher in refugee camps in Egypt--made the acquaintance
+of Ali Higg when he was prisoner of war down there--he was
+fighting for the Turks at one time--and helped him to escape.
+
+"I've never set eyes on her, but they say she's a rare
+good-looker and has more brains in her little finger than most
+men keep under their hats. I'm told she has designs on the throne
+of Mesopotamia."
+
+"Mespot? I thought the League of Nations was going to let the
+Arabs choose their own king."
+
+"Sure. And as soon as she sees that Ali Higg's pretensions don't
+amount to a row of shucks I wouldn't give ten piastres for that
+gentleman's lease of life! Borgia had nothing on her, they
+tell me."
+
+"So we're out to play chess with a white woman. Why didn't you
+tell me this before?"
+
+"What's your hurry?" asked Grim. "If you find out too much all at
+once you'll lose your bearings. I'll introduce you to the lady if
+we ever reach Petra right side up. Now let's eat, and get a move
+on. A full belly for a long march! Come."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+"Go and Ask the Kites, then, At Dat Rasi"
+
+
+
+So far everything worked out strictly according to plan. We had
+hardly finished a hurried meal when the lady Ayisha and her men
+arrived on mean baggage camels provided by old Rafiki; and they
+were not in the least pleased with their mounts, for a baggage
+camel is as different from a beast trained to carry a rider as an
+up-to-date limousine is from a Chinese one-wheel barrow. Perched
+on top of the lady Ayisha's beast was a thing they call a
+_shibrayah_--a sort of tent with a top like an umbrella, resting
+on the loads slung to the camel's flanks. From inside that she
+was busy abusing everybody.
+
+There was only one good camel with her outfit--a small, blooded
+looking Bishareen, a shade or two lighter in color than the
+rest, ridden by a wiry, mean rascal with a very black face.
+He seemed anxious not to assert himself, for he kept his
+mount well away in the shadows, and moved off when any one
+approached him.
+
+It was growing pitch-dark. Grim counted noses and gave the order
+to be off. Two or three men mounted, and that brought all the
+kneeling camels to their feet. One of Ali Baba's sons caught the
+beast assigned to me, brought him round to the gate, and began
+_nakhing_ him to make him kneel again. But I know one or two
+things about Arabs and their ways of assessing humanity.
+Knowledge is for use.
+
+"Do you mistake me for a cripple?" I asked, and instead of
+continuing to _nakh_ in the camel language he pulled the beast's
+head down.
+
+The trick is simple enough. You put your foot on the hollow of
+the camel's neck and swing into the saddle as he raises his head
+again. Men used to the desert despise you if you have to make
+your mount kneel in order to get on his back, pretty much as
+horsemen of other lands despise the tender foot who can't rope
+and saddle his own pony. There's no excuse for that, of course;
+it stands to reason that lots of first-class men can't mount a
+camel standing, never having done it; but, according to desert
+lore, whoever has to make his camel kneel is a person of
+no account.
+
+So I started off with at least one minus mark not notched against
+me. There was also an enormous feeling of relief, because I heard
+those two brats blubbering at being left behind.
+
+And oh, what a start that was before the moon-rise, with the
+great soft-footed beasts like shadows stringing one behind
+another into line through the streets of a city as old as
+Abraham! Utter silence, except for three camel bells with
+different notes. Instant, utter severance from all the new world,
+with its wheels that get you nowhere and conventions that have no
+meaning except organized whimsy.
+
+Peace under the stars, wholly aloof and apart from the problem
+that had sent us forth. And the feel under you of league-welcoming
+resilience, whatever the camels might say by way of objection.
+And they said a very great deal gutturally, as camels always do,
+yielding their prodigious power to our use with an incomprehensible
+mixture of grouchiness and inability to do less than their best.
+
+Grim rode in advance. His was the first camel bell that jangled
+with a mellow note somewhere in the darkness around the turn of a
+narrow street, or in a tunnel, where house joined house overhead.
+The lady Ayisha's was the second bell, three beasts ahead of me;
+she being the guest of honor as it were, or, rather, the prize
+passenger, it was important to know her whereabouts at any given
+moment. And last of all came old Ali Baba with the third bell
+announcing that all were present and correct. He and his men sat
+their camels with a stately pride more than half due to the
+rifles and bandoliers that had been served out.
+
+That black-faced fellow on the little Bishareen did not trouble
+himself about position in the line as long as we wound through
+the city streets. He was next in front of me, and I saw him
+exchange signals with a fat man in a house door, who may have
+been Rafiki the wool-merchant. Narayan Singh was next behind me,
+and I looked back to make sure that he had seen the signal too.
+
+But when we passed out of the city at the south end and began to
+swing along a white road at a clip that was plenty fast enough
+for the baggage beasts, the man in front of me urged his beast
+forward, thrusting others out of the way and getting thoroughly
+well cursed for it, until he rode next behind Grim.
+
+Seeing that, Narayan Singh rode after him, flogging furiously,
+and got well cursed too. But nothing else in particular happened
+for several miles until we began to descend between huge hills of
+limestone and, just as the moon rose, came on the reserve camels
+waiting for us in the charge of two policemen in a hollow.
+
+Then there began to be happenings. First there was shrill delight
+from Ayisha and a chorus of approval from her four men at the prospect
+of changing to reasonably decent mounts. Then a tumult of indignation
+from the wool-merchant's crowd--blunt refusal by them to consent
+to any change at all--threats--abuse--arguments--the roaring of
+camels who object on principle to everything, whatever it is,
+even to a chance to rest, because it hurts their backs to stand
+still loaded and over it all presently Grim's voice issuing
+orders in a tone he had when things go wrong.
+
+Strange that they don't choose leaders more often for their
+voices! It's the most obvious thing in the world that a man with
+a silver tongue, as they call it, can swing and sway any crowd.
+If that man knows his own mind and has a plan worth spending
+effort on he can trumpet cohesion out of tumult and win against
+men with twenty times his brains. I don't doubt Peter the Hermit
+had a voice like a bellbuoy in a tide-rip. Grim pitched his above
+the babel so that every word fell sharp, clear, and manly. They
+began to obey him there and then.
+
+But he could not attend to everything at once, and while he
+oversaw the changing of pack-saddles, and gave orders to the
+policemen to ride back on the camels behind Rafiki's men and see
+them safely into the city, that black-faced fellow on the
+Bishareen edged away, and in a moment was off at full gallop
+headed southwards. Narayan Singh was the first to see him go, but
+it was half a minute before he could get near Grim and call his
+attention to it.
+
+Grim ordered three of Ali Baba's men in pursuit at once.
+
+"Shall we shoot? Shall we slay?" asked one of them.
+
+"No, no. He hasn't committed any crime yet. Catch him and bring
+him back."
+
+"Crime? What is crime out here? We can kill him. But overtake him
+on that beast? _Wallah!"_
+
+They wasted another minute arguing for leave to shoot, and by the
+time they were off the deserter had a long start; but they rode
+with a will when they did go.
+
+If anything on earth looks more absurd than a ridden camel
+galloping away in the moonlight, with his neck stretched out in
+front of him and his four ungainly legs in the air all together,
+it is three more camels doing the same thing. They looked like a
+giant's washing blown off the line flapping before a high wind,
+and made hardly more noise. The whack-whack-whack of sticks on
+the beasts' rumps was as distinct as pistol-shots, but you hardly
+heard the galloping footfall.
+
+Grim went on about his business, for changing loads in the dark
+is a job that needs attention, unless you choose to have a good
+beast lose heart before morning and lie down in the middle of the
+road. A camel in pain from a badly cinched girth will endure it
+without argument for just so long; after which he quits, and
+not all the whacking or persuading in the world will get him
+up again.
+
+At the end of twenty minutes we were under way once more. Peace
+closed down on us, and we swayed along under the stars in
+majestic silence. There have been better nights since, I
+think;  but until then that was the most glorious experience
+of a lifetime.
+
+It is my peculiar delight to read and relive ancient history, and
+of all history books the Old Testament is vastly the most
+absorbing--far and away the most accurate. There is a school of
+fools who set themselves up to scoff at its facts, but every new
+discovery only confirms the old record; and here were we
+sauntering through the night on camels over hills where the
+fathers of history fought for the first beginnings of each man's
+right to do his own thinking in his own way.
+
+After a while Ali Baba gave his camel bell to his oldest son
+Mujrim, and forced his beast up beside mine, seeming to think
+silence might ruin the nerve of such a raw hand as myself. Or
+perhaps it was pride of race and country that impelled him. Even
+the meanest Arab thrills with emotion when he contemplates his
+ancient heritage, just as he rages at the prospect of seeing the
+Jews return to it, and Ali Baba, though a prince of thieves, was
+surely not a man without a heart.
+
+But the trouble with Arab as distinguished from Jewish history is
+that too little of it was written down, and too much of it
+invented to prove a theory--much like the stuff they put between
+the covers of school history books--so Ali Baba's lecture,
+although gorgeous fiction in its way, hardly enriched knowledge.
+Not that he was free from the latterday craving for accuracy
+whenever it might serve to bolster up the rest of the fabric.
+
+"Yonder," he said, for instance, pointing toward the sky-line
+with a dramatic sweep of his arm, "they say that Adam and Eve are
+buried. But they lie!"
+
+And having denounced that lie, he expected me to believe
+everything else he told me.
+
+According to him every rock we passed had its history of jinn and
+spirits as well as battles, and he knew where the tomb was of
+every national saint and hero, every one of whom had apparently
+died within a radius of twenty miles. Some of them had died in
+two or three different places as far as I could make out from his
+account of them.
+
+And what Abraham had not done on those hillsides in the way of
+miracles and war would not be worth writing in a book; whatever
+cannot be otherwise explained is set down to the Ancestor, the
+Arabs ranking Abraham next after Mohammed, because the patriarch
+built the Kaaba, or Mosque, at Mecca, that Mohammed centuries
+later on adopted for his new religion.
+
+But even Ali Baba grew tired of acting historian at last, and
+once more silence settled down, broken only by the bells and the
+camels' gurgling, until about midnight we overhauled the three
+men who had been sent in chase of the fellow on the Bishareen.
+They had lost him, and were angry; for what should a man do
+except be angry in such a circumstance, unless he is willing to
+accept blame?
+
+"You should have let us shoot, Jimgrim! Once I got close enough
+to have cut his beast's legs with my sword! You think this is
+like the city, where a policeman holds up a hand and men halt?
+Hah! Wallah! It was he who drew sword, and behold my camel's nose
+where he slashed at it! One finger's breadth closer and I would
+have had a sick beast on my hands--but he proved a blundering pig
+with his weapon and only made that scratch after all.
+
+"However, it is your fault, Jimgrim! You have made us to be
+laughed at by that father of dunghills! His beast was the faster,
+and he got away, and vanished in the shadows."
+
+So there we halted and held a conference, letting the camels
+kneel and rest for half an hour, while each man said his say
+in turn.
+
+"That man is Rafiki's messenger," said Grim. "He is on his way to
+Abbas Mahommed, Sheikh of the Beni Yussuf, who owes Rafiki money.
+I think Rafiki is offering to forgo the debt if Abbas Mahommed
+will lie in wait for us and carry off this woman."
+
+He did not ask for suggestions. There was no need. Every one of
+those cloaked and muffled rascals had a notion of his own on the
+spur of the moment, and was eager to get it adopted.
+
+"Allah!" said Ali Baba. "Let us fight, then, with Abbas Mahommed,
+and plunder his harem instead! It is simple. We come on his
+village before dawn when those sons of Egyptian mothers* are
+asleep. We set fire to the thatch, and thereafter act as seems
+fit, slaying some and letting others escape!"
+
+-----------
+* To call any one an Egyptian is an Arab's notion of a perfect insult.
+-----------
+
+_"Wallah!_ Let us ride straight through the village, set a light
+to it, and run," suggested Mujrim. "There isn't a woman in that
+place I would burden a camel with."
+
+"Nevertheless, we should take some women to keep as hostages
+against the time when a blood-feud begins."
+
+"And surely we shall carry off some camels."
+
+"Aye! They have a horse or two as well. Abbas Mahommed trades
+with El-Kerak, and only last month acquired a fine brown mare
+that caught my eye."
+
+"What are fifty men! We can fight twice fifty of such spawn as
+the Beni Yussuf."
+
+_"Wallah!_ They ran when the police paid them a visit. Ran from
+the police!"
+
+"Yes, and were afraid to kill the Jew who sued Abbas Mahommed in
+the court for arrears of interest. They are cowards who dare not
+take their sheikh's part in a dispute."
+
+"Better wait until dawn, and then ride by their village and
+defy them."
+
+But the lady Ayisha had the most astonishing suggestion. She came
+out from under the curtains of the _shibrayah_ and sat against
+her camel's rump to face the circle of armed men and instruct them.
+
+_"Taib!"_ she said scornfully. "Let this Abbas Mahommed come and
+take me. I have a knife for his belly in any event. You go on to
+Ali Higg and say his wife is in the hands of that scum. Ali Higg
+can cross the desert in three days, and by the evening of the
+fourth day there will be no village left, nor a man to call Abbas
+Mahommed by his name. If I haven't killed him already Abbas
+Mahommed will be carried off to Petra with the women, who shall
+watch what is done to him before they are apportioned with the
+other loot. That is simplest. Let Abbas Mahommed lift me if
+he dares!"
+
+She was clearly a young woman not averse to experiences, as well
+as confident of her lord's good will. But Grim had the peace of
+the border in mind; and the gang were not at all disposed to
+stand by meekly while Abbas Mahommed paid a debt so easily to a
+mere wool-merchant.
+
+"I am an old man," said Ali Baba, "and must die soon. May He Who
+never sleeps* slay me before I see my sons afraid to fight Abbas
+Mahommed and all his host!" [* A synonym for Allah]
+
+"Let's talk like wise men and not fools," proposed Grim at last,
+and since he had let them have their say first they heard him in
+silence now. "The difficulty is that Abbas Mahommed's village
+lies at the corner of the Dead Sea. We must turn that corner. If
+we pass between him and the sea he has us between land and water.
+If we journey too far south to avoid him we lose at least a day
+and tire our camels out. A forced march now would mean that we
+must feed the camels corn, and we have none too much of it with
+us; whereas tomorrow the grazing will be passable, and farther
+on, where the grazing is poor, we shall need the corn."
+
+_"Wallah!_ The man knows."
+
+_"Inshalla,_ let there be a fight then!"
+
+"Wait!" counseled Ali Baba. "I know this Jimgrim. There will be a
+deception and a ruse, but no fight. Listen to him. Wait and see!"
+
+"I think we will travel to the southward," said Grim, "and halt
+at dawn out of sight of Abbas Mahommed's village. There let the
+camels graze. But I, and a few of us, will take the lady Ayisha's
+camel with the _shibriyah,_ and draw near to the village. That
+black-faced rogue of Rafiki's will point us out to them, for he
+will recognize the _shibriyah._
+
+"Then when they come to seize the lady Ayisha they will find no
+woman in the litter. So they will believe that Rafiki's messenger
+has told lies that are blacker than his face, and will beat him
+and let us go."
+
+"But if they do not let you go? They are ruffians, you know, Jimgrim."
+
+"Then I shall find another way."
+
+"And how will you account for being so few men, when Rafiki's
+messenger will have said we are at least a score?"
+
+"Will that not be further proof that the man is a liar?"
+
+"If I did not know you of old I would say that is a fool's plan,"
+remarked Ali Baba, and his sons grunted agreement. "But you have
+a devil of resourcefulness. _Taib!_ Let us try this plan and see
+what comes of it."
+
+So we started off again to a running comment of contemptuous
+disapproval from the lady Ayisha, who seemed to think that no
+plan could be a good one unless it entailed murder. The farther
+we headed eastward, the nearer we came to the pale beyond which
+her lord and master's word was summary law, the more openly she
+advocated drastic remedies for everything, and the less she was
+inclined to take no for an answer.
+
+However, her monologue was wasted on the moon, for no one argued
+with her. Grim led the way-off the highroad now, and down dark
+defiles that set the camels moaning, while their riders yelled
+alternately to Allah and apostrophized their beasts in the
+monosyllabic camel language. Camels hate downhill work, especially
+when loaded, and fall unless told not to in a speech they
+understand, in that respect strangely like children.
+
+You had to look out in the dark, too, for the teeth of the camel
+behind, because they don't love the folk who drive them headlong
+into gorges full of ghosts, and one man's thigh or elbow makes as
+easy biting as the next.
+
+Camels are no man's pets, and there is no explaining them. The
+fools will graze contentedly with shrapnel and high explosives
+bursting all about them, but go into a panic at the sight of a
+piece of paper in broad daylight. And when they think they see
+ghosts in the dark they act like the Gadarene swine, only making
+more noise about it.
+
+I wouldn't have been the lady Ayisha going down some of those
+dark places for all the wealth of ancient Bagdad. Her _shibrayah_
+pitched and rolled like a small boat in a big sea, and whenever a
+rock leaned out over the narrow trail, or a scraggy old thorn
+branch swung, it was by a combination of luck and good carpentry
+that she was saved from being pitched down under the following
+camel's feet. Whoever made that _shibrayah_ could have built
+the Ark.
+
+But we came down through one last terrific gorge on to a level
+plain, where the camel-thorn grew in clumps and the heat
+radiating from the hills was like the breath from an oven door
+behind us. There the animals went best foot forward, as if they
+smelled the dawn and hoped to meet it sooner by hurrying. We had
+quite a job to keep back for the loaded beasts, and three or four
+men, instead of one, brought up the rear to prevent straggling.
+
+Then, about an hour before dawn, in a hollow between sparsely
+vegetated sand-dunes, Grim ordered camp pitched, and in very few
+minutes there was a row of little cotton tents erected, with a
+small fire in front of each.
+
+Most of the camels were turned out at once to graze off the
+unappetizing-looking thorns, sparse and dusty, that peppered the
+field of view like scabs on a yellow skin. There was no fear of
+their wandering too far, for if the camel ever was wild, as many
+maintain that he never was, that was so long ago that the whole
+species has forgotten it, and he wouldn't know what to do without
+his owner somewhere near.
+
+He has to be used at night, because he will not eat at night; on
+the other hand, he refuses to sleep in the daytime; so there is a
+limit to what you can do with a camel, in spite of his endurance,
+and once in so many days he has to be given a twenty-four hour
+rest so that he may catch up on both food and sleep.
+
+But on the dry plains such as where we were then they give less
+trouble than anywhere. For though they soon go sick on good corn,
+which a horse must have, they thrive and grow fat on desert
+gleanings; and whereas sweet water will make their bellies ache
+oftener than not, the brackish, dirty stuff from wells by the
+Dead Sea shore is nectar to them.
+
+Have you ever seen twenty camels rolling all at once with their
+legs in the air, preparatory to making breakfast off dry thorns
+that you wouldn't dare handle with gloves on? If so, you'll
+understand that they're the perfect opposite of every other
+useful beast that lives.
+
+But not all the camels were turned out. Grim chose Mujrim--Ali
+Baba's eldest son--a black-bearded, forty-year-old giant--two of
+the younger men, Narayan Singh and me; and with the lady Ayisha's
+beast in tow with the empty _shibrayah_ set off directly the sun
+was a span high over the nearest dune.
+
+We rode almost straight toward the sun, and in five minutes it
+appeared how close we were to the village whence danger might be
+expected. It was a straggling, thatched, squalid-looking cluster
+of huts, surrounded by a mud wall with high, arched gates. Only
+one minaret like a candle topped with an extinguisher pretended
+to anything like architecture, and even from where we were you
+could see the rubbish-heaps piled outside the wall to reek and
+fester. There was a vulture on top of the minaret, and kites and
+crows--those inevitable harbingers of man--were already busy with
+the day's work.
+
+The village Arabs are perfunctory about prayer, unless unctuous
+strangers are in sight, who might criticize. So, although we
+approached at prayer-time, it was hardly a minute after we rose
+in view over a low dune before a good number of men were on the
+wall gazing in our direction. And before we had come within a
+mile of the place the west gate opened and a string of camel-men
+rode out.
+
+The man at their head was the sheikh by the look of him, for we
+could see his striped silk head-dress even at that distance, and
+he seemed to have a modern rifle as against the spears and
+long-barreled muskets of the others. There were about two-score
+of them, and they rode like the wind in a half circle, with the
+obvious intention of surrounding us. Grim led straight on.
+
+They rode around and around us once or twice before the man in
+the striped head-gear called a halt. He seemed disturbed by
+Grim's nonchalance, and asked our business with not more than
+half a challenge in his voice.
+
+"Water," Grim answered. "Did Allah make no wells in these parts?"
+
+It doesn't pay to do as much as even to suggest your real reason
+for visiting an Arab village, for they won't believe you in
+any case.
+
+"What have you in the _shibriyah?"_
+
+"Come and see."
+
+The Sheikh Mahommed Abbas drew near alone, suspiciously, with his
+cocked rifle laid across his lap. His men began moving again,
+circling around us slowly--I suppose with the idea of annoying
+us; for that is an old trick, to irritate your intended victim
+until some ill-considered word or gesture gives excuse for an
+attack. But we all sat our camels stock-still, and, following
+Grim's example, kept our rifles slung behind us.
+
+The sheikh was a rather fine-looking fellow, except for smallpox
+marks. He had a hard eye, and a nose like an eagle's beak; and
+that sort of face is always wonderfully offset by a pointed black
+beard such as he wore. But there was something about the way he
+sat his camel that suggested laziness, and his lips were not thin
+and resolute enough to my mind, to match that beard and nose. I
+would have bet on three of a kind against him sky-high, even if
+he had passed the draw.
+
+He drew aside the curtain of the _shibrayah_ gingerly, as if he
+expected a trick mechanism that might explode a bomb in his face.
+
+_"Mashallah!_ Where is the woman?" he exclaimed.
+
+I found out then that I was right as to the way to play that
+supposititious poker hand. Grim had doped him out too, and
+answered promptly without changing a muscle of his face.
+
+_"Wallahi!_ Should I bring my wife to this place?"
+
+"Allah! Thy wife?"
+
+"Whose else?"
+
+"It was Ali Higg's wife according to the tale!"
+
+"Some fools swallow tales as the dogs eat the offal thrown to
+them! By the beard of God's Prophet, whom do you take me for?"
+
+_"Kif?_* How should I know?" [* What?]
+
+"Go and ask the kites, then, at Dat Ras!"
+
+"You are he? You are he who slew the--_Shi ajib!_* Now I think of
+it they did say he was beardless. Nay! Are you--Speak! Who are
+you?" [* This is strange!]
+
+"Does your wife wander abroad while you herd cattle?" Grim
+asked him.
+
+"Allah forbid! But--"
+
+"Is my honor likely less than yours?"
+
+"Then you are Ali Higg?"
+
+"Who else?"
+
+"And these?"
+
+"My servants."
+
+"Your honor travels abroad with a scant escort!"
+
+"Let us see, then, whether it is not enough! A tale was told me
+of a black-faced liar on a Bishareen dromedary who fled hither
+from El-Kalil last night to persuade the dogs of this place to
+bark in some hunt of his. There was mention made of a woman. My
+men pursued him along the road, but fear gave him wings. Hand
+him over!"
+
+"Allah! He is my guest."
+
+"Or let us see whether I cannot fire one shot and summon enough
+men to eat this place!"
+
+"That is loud talk. They tell me you travel with but twenty."
+
+"Try me!"
+
+You didn't have to be much of a thought-reader to know what was
+passing in that sheikh's mind. Supposing that Grim were really
+the notorious Ali Higg, he might easily have left Hebron with
+twenty men and have been joined by fifty or a hundred others in
+the night. Or there might be others on the way to meet him now.
+It was a big risk, for Ali Higg's vengeance was always the same;
+he simply turned a horde of men loose to work their will on the
+inhabitants of any village that defied him. The sheikh was
+not quite sure yet that he really sat face to face with the
+redoubtable robber, yet did not dare put that doubt to the test.
+
+"Is that all Your Honor wants?" he asked. "Just that messenger?"
+
+"Him and his camel--and another thing."
+
+"What else, then? We are poor folk in this place. There has been
+a bad season. We have neither corn nor money."
+
+"If I needed corn or money I would come and take them," Grim
+answered. "I have no present need. I give an order."
+
+"Allah! What then?"
+
+"It pleases me to camp yonder."
+
+He made a lordly motion with his head toward the west.
+
+"This side your village, then, all this day until sundown, none
+of your people venture."
+
+"But our camels go to graze that way."
+
+"Not this day. Today yours graze to the eastward."
+
+"There is poor grazing to the eastward."
+
+"Nevertheless, whoever ventures to the westward all this day does
+so in despite of me, and the village pays the price!"
+
+"Allah!"
+
+"Let Allah witness!" answered Grim.
+
+And his face was an enigma; but half the puzzle was already
+solved because there was no suggestion of weakness there. It was
+the best piece of sheer bluffing on a weak hand that I had
+ever seen.
+
+"Will Your Honor not visit my town and break bread with me?"
+asked Mahommed Abbas.
+
+"If I visit that dung-hill it will be to burn it," Grim answered.
+"Send me out that black-faced liar and the Bishareen. I am not
+pleased to wait long in the sun."
+
+"If we obey the command do we not merit Your Honor's favor?"
+
+That was a very shrewd question. A weak man with a weak hand
+would have walked into that trap by betraying the spirit of
+compromise. On the other hand an ordinary bluffer would have
+blundered by overdoing the high hand.
+
+"Consider what is known of me," Grim answered. "How many have
+disobeyed me and escaped? How many have obeyed and regretted it?
+But by the beard of Allah's Prophet," he thundered suddenly, "I
+grow weary of words! What son of sixty dogs dares keep me waiting
+in the desert while he barks?"
+
+Mahommed Abbas did not like that medicine, especially in front of
+all his men. But they had ceased circling long ago and were
+waiting stock-still at a respectful distance; for the name of Ali
+Higg meant evidently more to them than the honor of their own
+sheikh--which at best depends on the sheikh's own generalship. It
+was a safe bet that if he had called on them to attack that
+minute they would have declined.
+
+So he gave the dignified Arab salute, which Grim deigned to
+acknowledge with the slightest possible inclination of the head,
+and led his men away.
+
+"What would you have done if he had called your bluff?" I asked
+Grim, as soon as they were all out of earshot.
+
+"Dunno," he said, smiling. "I've learned never to try a bluff
+unless I'm pretty sure of my man. That guy doesn't own many
+chips. As a last resort I'd have to admit I'm a government
+officer--if they hadn't killed us all first!"
+
+We sat our camels there for about three quarters of an hour
+before half a dozen of Mahommed Abbas' men appeared with Rafiki's
+messenger riding the Bishareen between them. His face when they
+handed him over was the color of raw liver, and if ever a man was
+too scared to try to escape it was he. Ali Baba's two sons got
+one on either side of him without making him feel any better, for
+he too was a Hebron man and knew them and their reputation. There
+was nothing improbable about their throwing in their lot with the
+greater robber Ali Higg.
+
+Then the sheikh's men tried to load gifts on Grim--chickens, a
+live sheep, melons, vegetables, and camel milk in a gourd. Grim
+did not even deign to acknowledge them in person, but made a
+gesture to Narayan Singh, who promptly took charge of the
+prisoner himself and sent Ali Baba's sons back for the presents.
+They had the good grace to find fault with everything, vowing
+that the sheep especially was only fit for vultures. However,
+with a final sneer or two anent the donor's manners they bore
+sheep and all along behind us back to camp.
+
+"Is it well?" called Ali Baba, watching on the ridge of a dune,
+and coming to life like a heron as soon as we drew near.
+
+"All's well," said Grim.
+
+"Father of cunning! What now?" the old man answered.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"Let that Mother of Snakes Beware"
+
+
+
+The terms that Grim had imposed on Abbas Mahommed were perfectly
+well understood by every one concerned. The Arab is an individualist
+of fervid likes and dislikes and the thing that perhaps he hates
+most of all is to be observed by strangers; he does not like
+it even from his own people. So there was nothing incomprehensible,
+but quite the reverse, about that requirement that none from
+the village should trespass in our direction all that day. And,
+of course, only a bold robber conscious of his power to enforce
+them would have dared to insist on such terms.  But it was a
+good thing that Mahommed Abbas did not call the bluff.
+
+As it was, we slept all morning undisturbed, with only four
+watchers posted, relieved at intervals of one hour. And the only
+disturbance we suffered was from the lady Ayisha, who insisted
+that the black-faced prisoner was hers, camel and all, and that
+he should be taken to Petra for summary execution. She threatened
+Grim with all sorts of dire reprisals in case he should let the
+man go.
+
+But setting every other consideration aside the man would have
+been dangerous company on the journey. He was putting two and two
+together in his own mind, and was not nearly as frightened as he
+had been. But in Hebron he could do no harm, for once the Dead
+Sea should be behind us it would not matter how many people knew
+of Grim's errand, since we should travel faster than rumor
+possibly could across the desert.
+
+But if he should get one chance to talk with the lady Ayisha's
+men, and even cause them to suspect that Grim might be in league
+in some way with the British authorities, it would be all up with
+our prospect of deceiving folk in future. There was danger enough
+as it was that one of Ali Baba's men might make some chance
+remark that would inform Ayisha or her escort.
+
+Grim decided finally to let the man escape and gave Narayan Singh
+and me instructions how to do it. But first he satisfied Ayisha
+by giving loud orders to every one to watch the man, and by
+telling her that he didn't care what she did with him after we
+reached Petra. Then, late in the afternoon, when Mujrim had
+rounded up the camels, a dispute was intentionally started about
+an old well, and whether a good trail to the southward did not
+make a circuit past it. The prisoner was asked, and he said he
+knew the well. Grim called him a father of lies, which he
+certainly was, and sent him off on the worst of the camels
+between Narayan Singh and me to prove his words. Ali Baba kept
+the Bishareen.
+
+He led us a long way out into the desert among lumpy dunes in
+which the salt lay in strata, and where no sweet-water well could
+possibly be, or ever could have been. It was pretty obvious that
+all he wanted was a chance to escape from us, and he began
+offering bribes the minute we were out of sight of the camp.
+
+The bribes were all in the nature of promises, however. He hadn't
+a coin or a thing except the clothes he wore, Ali Baba's gang
+having attended to that thoroughly.
+
+"The wool-merchant--my master--is a rich man," he urged. "Let me
+go and he will be your friend for ever after."
+
+"We have no need of friends," Narayan Singh answered. "This man
+and I, being spies in the government service, on the other hand,
+are men whose friendship is of value. You can serve us in a
+certain matter."
+
+"Then give me money!" he retorted instantly. "He who serves the
+government nowadays receives pay."
+
+"The way to receive pay," said I, "is to take this letter to the
+governor of Hebron, who will then know that a certain man is
+pretending to be Ali Higg. Thus you will do the government a
+great service, and may receive the difference in price between
+the Bishareen camel and that mean brute you ride now."
+
+"We waste time. There is no well out here. Give me the letter!"
+
+He was gone in a minute, headed straight for Hebron, and Narayan
+Singh and I fired several shots in the air to let Ayisha know
+what a desperate pursuit we had engaged in. When we rode into
+camp again, trying to look shamefaced, they had about finished
+packing up, so Grim had time to call us terrible names for
+Ayisha's benefit--names that it would not have been safe to apply
+to any of Ali Baba's men if he had chosen them for the job.
+
+Those thieves would stand for any kind of devilry, and were
+willing to undertake all risks at Grim's bidding. Jail, fighting,
+hardship, meant to them no more than temporary inconvenience. But
+to have asked them to let a prisoner escape, and submit to
+shameful abuse for it afterward in the presence of a woman and
+strangers, would have been more than Arab loyalty could stand.
+
+And, mother of me, how that woman Ayisha did revile us! If ever
+she had doubted we were Indians she was sure of it now. She swept
+with her tongue the whole three hundred million Indians into one
+vile horde and de-sexed, disinherited, declassed, and damned the
+lot of us. Before you think you know anything about abuse,
+wholesale or retail, you should hear a lady of the desert
+proclaim displeasure. I wouldn't be surprised to know that the
+very camels blushed.
+
+It was all Narayan Singh could stand, for Ali Baba and his gang
+laughed derisively, and no true son of the East can endure to be
+laughed at.
+
+"Let that mother of snakes beware!" he growled in my ear; and
+as it turned out in the end, he did not forget the grudge he
+owed her.
+
+We were off again a good hour before sundown, and Mahommed Abbas
+sent out a screen of camel-men to follow us for several miles.
+They fired about twenty shots when we were well out of range, and
+boasted, as we learned afterward, of having put Ali Higg and a
+hundred men to rout.
+
+But that did no harm. It reduced the real Ali Higg's prestige for
+a while all over the countryside; and in these days of League of
+Nations and mandates and whatnot it is hard enough in all
+conscience for brave villagers with muskets to find something to
+make up songs about. De Crespigny knew the truth about it as soon
+as our "escaped" man got to Hebron.
+
+Before midnight we were well south of the Dead Sea and far beyond
+the border up to which the British mandate was supposed to be
+going to extend whenever the League of Nations Council should
+stop arguing. We were something like two thousand feet below
+sea-level now; but although the heat all day long under the tents
+had been almost intolerable, the night air was actually chilly
+because of the tremendous evaporation. The earth was throwing off
+the heat it had absorbed all day, and chill drafts crept from the
+mountaintops to take its place.
+
+And as we crossed the imaginary border in pure, mellow moonlight,
+with our three bells clanging, you could have told its approximate
+whereabouts by the change that came over the gang.  Even Grim's
+back, away ahead on the leading camel, assumed a jauntier
+swing. Old Ali Baba, next ahead of me, began to look ten
+years younger, and his sons and grandsons started singing--about
+Lot's wife acceptably enough, for we were near the fabled site of
+Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Prophet of Islam, who had nothing if
+not an eye for local color, incorporated that old story in
+the Koran.
+
+The pillar of salt that used to be called Lot's wife, and that
+"stood there until this day," when the Old Testament writer
+penned his narrative, has fallen into the Dead Sea in recent
+memory. But all that did was to set loose imagination that had
+hitherto been tied to one landmark, and Ali Baba pointed out to
+me a dozen upright piles of argillaceous strata glistening in
+moonlight, every one of which he swore was either Lot's wife or
+one of her handmaidens.
+
+"Such should be the fate of many other women," he asserted
+piously. "It would save a great deal of trouble."
+
+The lady Ayisha heard that remark, and the things she said for
+the next ten minutes about men in general and old Ali Baba in
+particular were as poisonous as the brimstone that once rained
+down on Sodom and Gomorrah. She seemed to have no sense of being
+under obligation for the escort, but rather to think we were all
+in her debt for the privilege--a circumstance which appeared
+to me to bode ill for the manners of the gentry we proposed
+to visit.
+
+Thereafter--I suppose since she considered she had utterly routed
+and reduced me to submission after the messenger's escape she
+summoned me to her side, thrusting the _shibrayah_ curtains apart
+and beckoning with the fingers turned downward, Bedouin fashion.
+We conversed quite amicably for more than an hour, she mocking my
+Arabic pronunciation, but asking innumerable questions about
+India--who my mother was, for instance, and whether my father
+used to beat her much; what physic was used in India for
+date-boils; why I had not stayed at home; wasn't I afraid of
+meeting Ali Higg; and were there such great ones as he in India?
+
+So, as there wasn't one chance in ten million of her knowing
+anything at all about India, I saw fit to explain that as a
+cockroach is to Allah so was Ali Higg to dozens of Indian bandits
+I had known. I told her tales of men's head piled mountains high,
+and of roads of corpses over which rajahs drove their chariots;
+of arenas full of tigers into which living prisoners were thrown
+once a week; and of a sheer cliff more than a mile high, over
+which women were tossed to alligators.
+
+She took it all in, but doubted demurely at the end of it whether
+all those princely Indian terrorists added together could, as she
+put it, "reach to the middle of the thigh of Ali Higg"!
+
+I asked her how she had come to marry the gentleman, and she
+answered with becoming pride that he had plundered her from the
+Bagdad caravan; but I think she meant by that a caravan of
+Bedouin on their way from Bagdad to wherever the grazing and
+thieving were good. She had a way of her own of enlarging things.
+Finally she asked me whether I carried good poison in my chest of
+medicines, and I told her I had some that could reach down to
+hell and kill the ifrits.
+
+"Wallah!" she answered. "If you two eunuchs hadn't lost that
+prisoner we could have tested some of it on him!"
+
+After that she dismissed me, I suppose that she might meditate on
+poison in the moonlight. I rode forward to take counsel with
+Grim, and some time during the night she got word with one of Ali
+Baba's younger sons. We had hardly camped an hour after dawn in
+the red-hot foothills east of the Dead Sea when Narayan Singh
+caught him rifling my chest, and he had the impudence to ask
+which were poisons and which not. Narayan Singh threatened an
+appeal to Grim, and the man apologized; but I saw Ayisha giving
+him sweetmeats in her tent not long afterward.
+
+She had none of the ordinary Moslem woman's notions of privacy. A
+whole Bedouin family will live in a black tent ten by twelve, and
+though she had picked up wondrous ideas of high estate since her
+infancy, the desert upbringing remained. Her tent was pitched
+each day in the midst of ours, and she ordered every one about,
+Grim included, as if we were her husband's purchased slaves. And
+because it was Grim's idea to make use of her to gain access to
+her husband we all put up with it, fetching and carrying without
+a murmur--that is to say, all except one of us.
+
+Whenever Narayan Singh had to do her bidding his great black
+beard rumbled with discontent; and as that only amused her she
+ordered him about more than any one, the others aiding and
+abetting by inventing things for him to be told to do. But it
+hardly paid her in the long run.
+
+On the third day, when we camped by an old well that Ali Baba
+swore was the identical one made by the angel Gabriel to provide
+water for Hagar and Ishmael--there are twenty or thirty of those
+identical wells in Palestine alone, to say nothing of Arabia--she
+began to take a particular fancy to Grim and to treat him with
+more respect, giving him the title of prince on occasion, and
+abusing the men for not attending more swiftly to his needs.
+
+Now, whatever the alleged custom of other lands may be--and I
+refuse to be committed on that point--there is no doubt whatever
+about the East. There it is the woman who makes the first
+advances. Grim took to sleeping in a tent with Mujrim and
+Ali Baba.
+
+Considering the customs of that land--the savage, accepted
+way in which women swap owners when tribes are at war, and
+between times when the raids are made on caravan routes--it
+would be altogether wide of the mark to blame her too severely.
+Grim is a good-looking fellow, even in the khaki officer's
+uniform that makes most Christians look alike. Disguised as
+an Arab he takes the eye of any man, to say nothing of women.
+
+The lines of his face are just deep enough to accent the powerful
+curve of his nose and chin; and his eyes, with their baffling
+color, arrest attention. Then he stands, too, in that gear like a
+scion of an ancient race, firmly, on strong feet, with his head
+held high and arms motionless--not fidgeting with one or both
+hands, as white men usually do. The wonder really is that Ayisha
+did not betray her designs on him sooner.
+
+Narayan Singh grew as nervous as a hen in the presence of snakes,
+for he foresaw how Grim's star would surely wane from the moment
+any such woman as Ayisha should establish a claim on him; and he
+did not quite realize the full extent of Grim's resourcefulness
+in making the most of a situation. Old Ali Baba's advice, on the
+other hand, was just what he would have given to any of his sons.
+
+"Let Ali Higg keep his wives within reach if he hopes to call
+them his! _Wallahi!_ I would laugh to see the Lion of Petra
+tearing his clothes with rage for such a matter as this!"
+
+And all the gang agreed.
+
+Ayisha began to question Grim openly about his home and belongings.
+She wanted to know how many wives he had, and he told her none,
+which made her all the more determined. If he had affected
+squeamishness she would have despised him, and that would
+have been the end of her usefulness; for scorn is very close
+indeed to hate, and hate to spitefulness in the land where
+she was raised. But he did nothing of the sort. He was as frank
+as she was, and did his fencing, as you might say, with a club.
+
+"The desert is full of women!" he told her on one occasion when
+she made more than usually open overtures.
+
+"But not such as I am!"
+
+"A woman's heart lies under her ribs, and who shall read it?"
+he answered.
+
+"A pig can read some things!" she retorted; for he always managed
+to keep just clear of the point where frankness might have merged
+into poetry.
+
+Her own four armed attendants seemed to take the whole affair
+rather speculatively. She was probably in position to have them
+crucified on her return to Petra in case they should offer
+unacceptable advice. And it may be they would have looked
+favorably on the chance to transfer allegiance from Ali Higg to
+Grim, who had crucified nobody yet; as Ayisha's servants they
+would doubtless go with her, should she change owners.
+
+She asked me repeatedly for love potions, to be slipped into
+Grim's food or into his drink, and was so importunate about it
+that, after consulting Grim, I gave her some boric powder. The
+next morning Grim told her that her eyes were like a young
+gazelle's, so my reputation as a _hakim_ rose several degrees.
+
+"Is he mad?" growled Narayan Singh. "Ah, each man has his
+weakness! He and I have played with death a dozen times, but I
+never knew him lose his head. So he is woman-crazed? What next,
+I wonder!"
+
+The girl had lots of encouragement, for, not counting the younger
+men, who were hell bent for any kind of mischief, and constantly
+egged her on, old Ali Baba spent half of each day in the tent
+expounding to Grim the ethics of such situations; and they were
+as simple as the code of Moses.
+
+"Love thy neighbor's wife if she will let you. Defeat thy
+neighbor in all ways whenever possible. On these two hang all
+amusement and prosperity."
+
+And Grim was much too wise to pretend to Ali Baba any other
+motive than expedience. It would not have paid to take the old
+rascal too much into his confidence, because most Arabs overplay
+their hand; but he did drop a hint or two; and from what he told
+me I should say it was Ayisha's persistent love-making that
+provided the first suggestion of a plan in his mind for bringing
+Ali Higg to terms.
+
+But I'm sure the plan did not really take shape until we reached
+the sun-baked railway-line that drags its rusty length behind
+wild hills all the way from Damascus down to Mecca.
+
+Some say that the very steel of the rails is sacred because it
+was built to carry pilgrims to the Prophet's tomb. But some say
+not. And those who lost the carrying trade on account of it, and
+the tribes that used to lie in wait in mountain-passes for the
+Damascus caravan in the month of pilgrimage, say distinctly not.
+Between these two opinions there is a third, that of the gentry
+who declare it is a curse, to be turned back on the heads of
+those who use it.
+
+During four nights we climbed unlovely hills, avoiding villages--to
+the disgust of Ali Baba's gang, who would dearly have loved to
+pick a quarrel somewhere and loot. They had a thousand excuses
+for taking another trail, declaring that Grim had lost the way
+or would lose it; that there was sweeter water elsewhere; or
+that the hills were not so steep and hard on the camels. But
+the moon was nearly full by then, and Grim seemed to carry a
+map of the district in his head.
+
+Whether he went by guesswork, or really knew, we turned up
+finally a few miles from El-Maan at the exact spot he had aimed
+for, and pitched camp soon after dawn within fifty yards of the
+track. There was no water in that place and the gang grumbled
+badly; but it was not long before the reason of his choice was
+fairly obvious.
+
+Tracks across the desert have a way of curving from point to
+point, no more following a straight course than the cow-paths
+do in other lands. Where there is a rock, or some peculiar
+conformation of the ground to attract attention, men and beasts
+will head for it, attracted somewhat after the fashion of a
+compass-needle by a lodestone or lump of iron.
+
+There was a rock shaped like a flattened egg beyond the track,
+two or three hundred yards away from us. It stood all alone in a
+dazzling wilderness that was doubtless green at certain seasons
+of the year, but now was bone-dry and glittering with flakes of
+mica. Close beside that ran a track worn by camels and horses,
+and the shadow of that great rock in a weary land was plainly a
+halting-place.
+
+Our men wanted to cross over and take advantage of the shade it
+would give as the sun climbed higher, but Grim refused to let
+them; whereat Ayisha went into a shrewish rage, and ordered her
+four men to take up her tent and pitch it over by the rock
+whether Grim permitted it or not. So they obeyed her, and Grim
+said nothing.
+
+The rest of us set about cooking breakfast after the morning
+prayers were over. My prayer-mat was next Narayan Singh's, and it
+was interesting to hear him curse the Prophet _sotto voce_ while
+pretending to vie with those robbers in fervid protestations of
+faith in Islam. But more than the Prophet he cursed Ayisha,
+praying to his Hindu pantheon to wreak all wrath on her.
+
+It was a diluted pantheon, of course, because he was a Sikh; he
+wasn't able to call on as many animal-shaped gods with as many
+arms and teeth as a Bengali could have urged into action; but he
+did his best with the technical resources at his disposal.
+
+Without pretending to be a judge of other men's creeds, I thought
+at the time that he made a pretty workman-like hash of that
+lady's prospects, so far as his particular formula could do
+it. I jotted down some of his suggestions to the gods for
+future reference, and purpose to teach them to the U.S. Army
+mule-skinners next time this country goes to war.
+
+While we were eating breakfast in a circle in front of the tents,
+all sticking our right hands into a common mess-pan and eating
+like wolves--you have to be awfully careful not to use your
+left hand, and unless you eat fast you'll get less than your
+share--there came five men on camels out of a wady--a shallow
+valley that lay like a cut throat with red rocks on its edge
+something over a mile away beyond the egg-shaped rock. They were
+armed--as everybody is in those parts who hopes to live--and
+in a hurry.
+
+Ayisha and her people did not see them, because the great rock
+was in the way, but we left off eating to watch, and Grim went
+into his tent to use field-glasses without being seen. It is not
+unheard of for an Arab sheikh to use Zeiss binoculars, but it
+might make a stranger suspicious.
+
+The five men came on at a gallop, sending up the dust in clouds
+like a cruiser's smoke-screen. They seemed to take it for
+granted that we were friends, for we were in full view and far
+outnumbered them, yet they did not check for an instant, and that
+in itself was a suspicious circumstance.
+
+They came to a halt ten yards away from Ayisha's tent, and stared
+at her in silence, realizing, apparently for the first time, that
+they had come within rifle-shot of strangers. We could see her
+talking to them, but could not hear what she said. Perhaps that
+was as well. I think that even Grim with his poker face in
+perfect working order would have been flustered if he had been
+given time to think. The surprise, when it came, made him brace
+himself to meet it; and, once committed, he played with the sky
+for a limit as usual.
+
+One thing was quite clear: Ayisha had made herself known to them,
+and they were properly impressed. They dismounted from their
+camels, and, after bowing to her as respectfully as any lord of
+the desert decently could do to a woman, they left their beasts
+kneeling and started all together toward us.
+
+So Grim went out to meet them, even outdoing their measured
+dignity, striding as if the desert were his heritage. But he went
+only as far as the railway track, and waited; to have gone a step
+farther would have made them think themselves his superiors. Ali
+Baba, Mujrim, Narayan Singh, and I, went out and stood behind him
+at a properly respectful distance.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"Him and Me--Same Father!"
+
+
+
+Every detail of a man's bearing is watched carefully in that
+land. Every action has its value. The etiquette of the desert is
+more strict, and more dangerous to neglect, than that of palaces,
+although it is simpler and more to the point, being based on the
+instinct of self-preservation.
+
+The Arabs who approached us, having ridden straight into a trap
+for all they knew, for they had expected friends and found
+strangers, were even more than usually observant of formality.
+They were fierce, fine-looking fellows, possessed of that dignity
+that only warfare with the desert breeds, and they saluted Grim
+with the punctilio of men who know the meaning of a fight to him
+who doubtless understands it too. A very different matter, that,
+to raising your Stetson on Broadway, with two cops on the corner
+and the Stars and Stripes floating from the hotel roof. They eyed
+Grim the while in the same sort of way that men who might be
+charged with trespass look at the game warden, waiting for him to
+speak first.
+
+_"Allah ysabbak bilkhair!"_ he rolled out at last.
+
+_"Allah y'a fik, ya Ali Higg!"_ they answered one after the other.
+
+And then the oldest of them--a black-bearded stalwart with
+extremely aquiline nose and dark-brown eyes that fairly gleamed
+from under the linen head-dress, took on himself the role
+of spokesman.
+
+"O Ali Higg! May Allah give you peace!"
+
+"And to you peace!" Grim answered.
+
+I could not see Grim's face, of course, since I stood behind
+him, but I did not detect the least movement of surprise or
+nervousness. He stood as if he were used to being called by
+that name, but the rest of us did not dare look at one another.
+Once across that railway-line we were in the real Ali Higg's
+preserves. It occurred to me at the moment as vastly safer to
+pose as the U.S. President in Washington.
+
+Still, Grim had not actually accepted the situation yet. I
+held my breath, trying to remember to look like a product of
+Lahore University.
+
+"We were on our way to El-Maan, O Ali Higg, not knowing that your
+honor had a hand in this affair."
+
+"Since when is a lion not called a lion?" demanded Grim. "Who
+gave thee leave to name me?"
+
+"Pardon, O Lion of Petra! But the woman yonder, boasting with
+proper pride that she is Your Honor's wife, bade us approach and
+pay respect."
+
+On my left I heard Narayan Singh muttering obscenities through
+set teeth. On the right old Ali Baba wore a twinkle in a wicked
+eye; the rest of his face was as emotionless as the face of the
+desert; but when an old man is amused not even the crow's-feet
+can do less than advertise the fact.
+
+"A woman's tongue is like a camel bell," said Grim. "It clatters
+unceasingly, and none can silence without choking it. But art
+thou a woman?"
+
+"Pardon, O Lion of Petra!"
+
+There followed a long pause. When men meet in the desert it is
+only those from the West who are in any hurry to betray their
+business. There being an infinity of time, that man is a liar who
+proclaims a shortage of it.
+
+"Will the sun not rise tomorrow?" asks the East.
+
+Grim stood like a statue; and, judging by my own feelings, who
+had nothing at all to do but look on, I should say that was a
+test of strength.
+
+"Last week the train was punctual at El-Maan--three hours after
+sunrise," said the spokesman at last.
+
+On lines where there is only one train a week it is not unusual
+for its arrival to be the chief social event on the country-side,
+but that hardly seemed to me to account for the way those five
+men had been driving their camels. However, as Grim knew no more
+of their business than the rest of us, and needed desperately to
+find out, he was careful to ask no questions.
+
+No desert responds to the inquisitive folk who camp on its edge
+and demand to be told; but it will tell you all it knows if you
+keep quiet and govern yourself in accordance with its moods. The
+men who live in the desert are of the same pattern--fierce, hot,
+cold, intolerant, cruel, secretive, given to covering their
+tracks, and yet not without oases that are better than much fine
+gold to the man who knows how to find them. They enjoy a proverb
+better than some other men like promises.
+
+"Allah marks the flight of birds. Shall He not decree a train's
+journey?" said Grim.
+
+_"Inshallah,_ Lion of Petra! The train will come, when that is
+written, and that which is written shall befall. It is said
+there are sons of corruption on the train, who bear much wealth
+with them.
+
+"It were a pity to leave all the looting to those who got to
+El-Maan soonest. They who slay will claim the booty.
+
+"Or does Your Honor intend to arrive afterward and claim a share,
+leaving the labor to those who seek labor? In that case we crave
+permission to join Your Honor's party. It may be we can help
+enforce Your Honor's just demands, and be recompensed accordingly?"
+
+_"Wallahi!"_ Grim answered after a long pause. "Who sets himself
+to plunder trains without my leave? Have I been such short time
+in Petra that men doubt who rules here? Have I not said the train
+shall pass El-Maan and come thus far? Who dares challenge me? Do
+I wait here for nothing? Shall I be satisfied with a string of
+empty cars?"
+
+The Arab turned and conferred for a moment with his four friends.
+They shook their heads.
+
+"O Lord of the Desert," he said after a minute, "none has heard
+of this decree. Your Honor's messenger may have failed or have
+fallen into bad hands on the way. Word has not come that you
+reserve this train for your own profit. There will be fifty
+men at El-Maan now waiting to slay certain passengers and
+plunder others."
+
+Grim had evidently made up his mind and had set full sail on the
+course indicated. I confess I shuddered at the prospect; but I
+never saw a man look more pleased than Ali Baba, and Narayan
+Singh's face betrayed militant admiration. Nor have I ever heard
+such a streak of fulminous bad language as Grim swore then,
+calling earth and all its elements to witness the brimstone anger
+of a robber chief.
+
+"Go ye," he thundered, "and tell those sons of swine that I say
+the train shall pass to this point. And as to what happens
+thereafter that is my affair. Bid any and all who chose to
+dispute my word to look first to their wives and goods. I
+have spoken."
+
+The five men fell back a pace in consternation, no doubt
+partly affected for the sake of flattery; but they were quite
+obviously disconcerted.
+
+_"Wallahi!_ If we go on such an errand who shall save our lives?
+Who are we to come between wolves and their prey?"
+
+"Say ye are my messengers," retorted Grim. "Let any touch a
+messenger of mine who dares."
+
+"But they will not believe us."
+
+"That is their affair. It is Allah's way to make blind those who
+it is written are to be destroyed."
+
+"Nay, Lion of Petra, give a man to go with us--one whom they will
+know and recognize. Then all shall be well."
+
+Have I ever said that Grim is a genius? He can take longer
+chances in a crisis with a more unerring aim than any man I ever
+knew. Surely he took one then.
+
+"Nay," he laughed. "I will send them a woman. Let us see who will
+dare gainsay the woman."
+
+That was simply supreme genius. It even pleased Narayan Singh,
+since the tables were turned on Ayisha. The only reason she could
+possibly have had for telling these men that Grim was Ali Higg
+was to score off him, either by capturing him for herself, or in
+the alternative by ruining him for rejecting her advances. It was
+not clear yet which of the two she hoped to accomplish; perhaps,
+little savage that she was, she would have been content with
+either alternative and had simply chosen to force the issue.
+
+At any rate Grim had passed the buck back to her. He sent me over
+to the rock to fetch her, and I found her smiling serenely, like
+the Sphinx, only with more than a modicum of added mischief.
+
+"Woman, the Lion of Petra summons you," said I.
+
+She laughed at that as if the world were at her feet--got up, and
+stretched herself, and yawned like a lazy cat that sees the milk
+being set down in a saucer--straightened her dress, and nodded
+knowingly to her four men. She had evidently reached an
+understanding with them.
+
+"I hasten to do my lord's bidding," she answered, and followed
+me back.
+
+It calls for all your presence of mind to remember to walk in
+front of a woman who is addressed as often as not as princess;
+but if I had walked behind her they would have suspected me at
+once of being no true Moslem.
+
+I returned and stood behind Grim, and she stood in front of him,
+so that I was able to see her face. It was as good as a show to
+see her swallow back surprise and wonder at him open-eyed, as he
+played the part she had foisted on him and loaded her with
+the responsibility.
+
+"Go with these men, Ayisha, and tell those swine at El-Maan that
+I say the train shall pass unharmed as far as this point.
+Moreover, say that none may trespass. What shall take place here
+is my affair. The range of my rifle is the measure of the line
+across which none may come.
+
+"Stay with them, Ayisha, until the train leaves El-Maan. Then you
+may leave your camel and return hither on the train. That is
+my order."
+
+She was bluffed. And she recognized it with a sort of dog-like
+glance of admiration. We had all her baggage, for one thing, and
+it represented more wealth than any Bedouin woman would let
+go willingly.
+
+Now if she were to reverse what she had said, and refuse to
+advertise Grim as Ali Higg, these five men and probably others
+would surely denounce her to her real husband. She had no choice.
+But she was sharp-witted, and made the most of the situation
+even so.
+
+"Shall I go alone, my lord? Alone with these strangers?"
+
+"Take two of your servants."
+
+But what she wanted to make sure of was that Grim might not
+decamp with her baggage and leave her to face the consequences.
+It seems you can fall in love in the desert without putting too
+much faith in masculine nature.
+
+"Nay, give me two men I can trust. Give me that and that one."
+
+She selected old Ali Baba and me; and it was a shrewd choice, for
+unless Grim was a more than usually yellow-minded rascal he was
+surely not going to leave the captain of his gang behind. And no
+doubt she supposed I was valuable to Grim because of the
+friendly, confidential way in which he always treated me. In
+other words, she proposed to have two first-class hostages.
+
+Grim gave her three. He sent Ali Baba, me, and Mujrim, and
+mounted her on the Bishareen dromedary, that men might know she
+was one whom her lord delighted to honor. She tried to get a
+chance to whisper to him, but he was too alert and acted exactly
+as if he had known her all his life, needing no explanations
+or assurances.
+
+So off we nine rode beside the railway track, she leading, since
+she was chief emissary, and the last I saw of Grim for a few
+hours he was squatting in the circle of remaining men, talking to
+them as calmly as if nothing had happened.
+
+Well, there was nothing for me to do but ride forward and watch
+points. I was a hostage without responsibility.
+
+If Ayisha should chose to turn on us and hand me over to the
+crowd at El-Maan I believed I would have wit enough to denounce
+her in return; and it might be that as a Darwaish I could claim
+immunity. Failing that, I found myself able to hope with a really
+acute enthusiasm that my shrift at the crowd's hands might be
+short. I did not want to be crucified, or pulled in pieces by
+camels; but if mine was to be the casting vote, of the two the
+camels had it.
+
+There were other points to be considered. I had a rifle slung
+behind me, and two bandoliers. However, it was highly unlikely I
+would have a chance to use the rifle, which is an awkward weapon
+at close quarters when surrounded.
+
+But hidden under my coat I had two repeating-pistols and a knife.
+Since a man can't prevent himself from making plans when there is
+nothing else to think about, I made up my mind finally in case of
+trouble to let them take the rifle and the knife; they might then
+suppose me to be disarmed. After that, if the trouble should be
+due to Ayisha's treason, I would execute her, and shoot myself in
+the head with the same pistol rather than submit to torture.
+
+At the end of the first mile I drew alongside Ali Baba and passed
+him my second pistol. It did not seem any of my business to
+advise him what to do with it beyond hiding it under his clothes.
+The old rascal's eyes glittered as his hand closed on it, and
+it seemed to me he understood; and so he did, but not what
+I intended.
+
+I never got the pistol back. He understood that a fool and his
+repeater are soon parted. When I asked him for it afterward he
+vowed he had lost it, and called his son Mujrim in addition to
+Allah and Mohammed and all the saints to witness that he spoke
+virgin truth, and, moreover, that he never lied, and would rather
+die ten times over than play a trick on me. I have heard since
+that he has become a very good shot with a repeating-pistol, but
+has difficulty in stealing suitable ammunition.
+
+Ayisha wasted no breath on conversation on the way, but whipped
+her camel to its utmost speed after the first mile, so that we
+had our work cut out to keep up with her. It is aggravating to
+ride a big beast and try in vain to overtake a little one; but
+she had been born to the game, and there wasn't a man in the
+party who could have won a race against her, whichever of the
+animals she rode; for the camel knows quicker than a horse
+whether his rider understands the art or not. And art it is, as
+surely as painting or music--art that can be tediously learned in
+a degree, but must be born in you if you are ever to excel at it.
+
+The desert was all red sand now and dreary beyond human power to
+imagine. The clouds of dust we kicked up followed us, and even
+the cloths we kept across our mouths and nostrils did not keep it
+out. You felt like a mummy riding a race in hell, and how the
+camels managed to breathe I can't guess. The sun on our right
+hand was just at the angle where it struck your eyes under
+the _kuffiyi._
+
+But I was the only one who seemed at all distressed by any of
+those inconveniences; the others accepted them as in the natural
+order of things, and my camel, realizing how I felt, galloped
+last in the worst of the dust.
+
+El-Maan itself was a picture of green trees above a mud wall; but
+we did not visit it, for the station, with its hideous red
+water-tanks, was a mile and a half to the eastward of the
+place--a miserable, bleak, unpainted iron roof and buildings,
+with a place alongside that had once been a Greek hotel.
+
+At present it looked like a camel-mart; but there were dozens of
+horses there too, gaudily turned out like the camels with red
+worsted trimmings on saddles and bridles. And as for the fifty
+men our five new acquaintances had spoken of, there were a
+hundred and fifty if one, all herded in groups, each with
+a rifle over his arm or slung across his shoulder. Their talk
+ceased as we rode along the track, and those who were on the
+platform--about half of them--eyed Ayisha with as much curiosity
+as a Bedouin taken by surprise ever permits himself to betray.
+
+She did not give them much time for reflection, and wasted none
+whatever on conciliation, but affronted them from camel-back,
+having learned that method, no doubt, from her rightful lord and
+master. It was obvious from the first that they all knew her
+by sight.
+
+_"Wallahi!_ Good meat for the crows ye will all be presently! Has
+the Lion of Petra lost his teeth that jackals hunt ahead of him?
+Did the men of Dat Ras profit by coming between him and his prey?
+Go, look at Rat Das and count the splinters of men's bones! So
+shall your bones lie--ye who tempt the wrath of Ali Higg!"
+
+She rode along the line, showing her little teeth like pomegranate
+seeds in a sneer that would have made a passport clerk take notice;
+and her voice was raised to a shrill, harpy scream that rasped
+under the iron roof, so that none could have pretended he did
+not hear.
+
+"The Lion claims this train! The Lion of Petra lies in wait for
+it at a place of his own choosing! Who dares forestall him? Who
+dares slay one passenger, or loot one truck? Who dares? Stand
+out, whoever dares, that I may take his name back to the
+Lion of Petra!"
+
+Nobody did stand out. They all herded closer together, as if in
+fear that any one left on the edge of the crowd might be assumed
+to challenge her authority. Yet they looked capable of plundering
+a city, that company of stately cutthroats. Perhaps some of them
+had seen what actually happened when Ali Higg raided Dat Ras.
+Certainly they came from scattered settlements, on which Ali Higg
+could take detailed vengeance whenever it suited him.
+
+"Ye know me! I wait here for the train. I shall ride on it to
+where the Lion of Petra waits. Who dares interfere with me or
+follow? Let him name himself! Who dares?"
+
+Her savagery fed itself on threats, and increased as she felt
+herself grow mistress of the situation. Partly the primitive love
+of power, partly the animal instinct to subject and oppress--pride
+on top of that, and something of her sex, too, glorying in
+giving orders to the self-styled sterner members--drove her
+to increasing frenzy.
+
+And it was not fear alone that impressed the crowd and impelled
+it to obedience, for those highland Bedouins are, after all, too
+practical for that. We were but nine all told, to their seven or
+eight score, and they might have enforced the logic of that
+first, and left the threatened consequences for afterward, but
+for the appeal of the spectacular.
+
+It bewildered them to be harangued confidently by a woman--they
+who were used to watching women carry loads. There was something
+revolutionary about it that took their breath away, and swept
+their own determination into limbo.
+
+As always, the men in the background, who felt they could avoid
+recognition, were the only ones who ventured to raise objection.
+One or two of them started to laugh, that being the best answer
+all the world over to any threat, and if the laugh had spread
+that would likely have been the end of us. I had unslung my rifle
+and held it in full view resting on my thigh, being minded to
+look as murderous as possible, but she stole all my thunder by
+suddenly snatching the rifle away and drawing back its bolt to
+cock the spring with that almost effortless adroitness that comes
+of long use.
+
+"Who laughs at the Lion of Petra's threat?" she screamed, raising
+herself in the saddle to survey the crowd. "Who laughs? He shall
+die by the hand of a woman! Who laughs, I say?"
+
+But nobody wanted to die by a woman's hand; and nobody chose to
+slay the woman, because of the certainty of vengeance dealt by an
+expert in terrorism. I know I didn't doubt she would have used
+the rifle, and I don't suppose they did. If she couldn't be
+laughed out of countenance the only alternative was bloodshed,
+and none dared show fight.
+
+Old Ali Baba worked his camel closer, and, because an Arab must
+boast at every opportunity, began to whisper in my ear.
+
+_"Wallahi!_ Was I not wise? It was I who told her if she wanted
+our Jimgrim she should tell the world she is his wife and he the
+veritable Ali Higg! It takes an old man's tongue to guide the
+cleverest woman!"
+
+The train screamed then in the distance, and a Syrian station
+agent in tattered khaki uniform went through the wholly
+unnecessary process of letting down a signal. We got off the
+track and rode our camels round on to the platform. The crowd
+gave way before us, and Ayisha thrust herself this and that way
+among them, breaking up groups, striking me over the wrist with
+the stick she had for flogging the camel because I tried to
+regain the rifle.
+
+By the time the rusty, creaking, groaning rattletrap of a train
+drew up there was not an element of cohesion left in the crowd.
+She knew too much to drive them away to where they might have
+regained something of determination, but let them stand there
+under her eye where they could see in herself the ruthless symbol
+of Ali Higg's ruthlessness. And not even the sight of the
+frightened passengers, in a panic because of tales that had been
+told them up the line, could restore their plunder-lust.
+
+As a matter of fact that was a romantic little mixed train when
+you come to think of it. The Arab engine-driver, piloting his
+charge through no-man's land, where the bones of former train
+crews lay bleaching, simply because he was an engine-driver and
+that was his job; the freight in locked steel cars consigned by
+optimists who hoped it might reach its destination; the four
+guards armed with worn-out rifles that they did not dare use; the
+four passenger-cars with their window-glass all shot away; the
+half-dozen Arab artisans carried along for makeshift repairs en
+route; and the more than brave--the too-fatalist-to-care-much
+passengers wondering which of their number had an enemy at every
+halting-place; and along with that the formalism--the observance
+of conventions such as blowing the whistle and pulling down the
+signal, on a track that carried one train one way once a week; it
+made you feel like taking off your hat to it all, reminding me in
+a vague way of those Roman legionaries who kept up the semblance
+of their civilization after the power of Rome had waned.
+
+I rode over beside the engine-driver and warned him to pull out
+before trouble started. But he had to take in water first. And he
+seemed to be an expert in symptoms of lawlessness. Leaning his
+grimy head and shoulders out of the cab, he looked the crowd
+over, spat, and showed his yellow teeth in a grin that vaguely
+reminded me of Grim's good-humored smile.
+
+_"Mafish!"_ he remarked, summing up the situation in two
+syllables. "Nothing doing!"
+
+I would have given, and would give now, most of what I own for
+that man's ability to pass such curt, comprehensive judgment
+without reservation, equivocation, or hesitation. I rather
+suspect that it can only be learned by sticking to your job when
+the rest of the world has been fooled into thinking it is making
+history out of talk and treason.
+
+There was nothing whatever but water for the train to wait for.
+Nobody had business at El-Maan, for the simply sufficient reason
+that you can't do business where governments don't function,
+where all want everything for nothing, and whoever could pay won't.
+
+The engine-driver's grimier assistant swung the water-spout
+clear and climbed back over the cab, cursing the view, crowds,
+coal-dust, prospect--everything. He meant it too. When he said he
+wished the devil might pitch me into hell and roast me forever he
+wasn't exaggerating. But I got off my camel and boarded the
+engine nevertheless. Ayisha had handed over her mount to Ali Baba
+and entered the caboose, ignoring the protests of the uniformed
+conductor who, having not much faith in fortune, did not care
+whom he offended. But he might as well have insulted a camel as
+Ayisha, for all he would have gained by it.
+
+My friend the engine-driver blew the whistle; somebody on the
+platform tooted a silly little horn; a signal descended in the
+near distance and we started just as I caught sight of Mujrim
+coming to take my camel.
+
+Then it occurred to some bright genius that even if they might
+not loot the train there was no embargo on rejoicing; and there
+was only one way to do that. What they saw fit to rejoice about I
+don't know, but one shot rang in the air, and a second later
+fifty bullets pierced the dinning iron roof.
+
+That made such a lovely noise and so scared the passengers that
+they could not resist repeating it, and by the time we had
+hauled abreast of the distance-signal there was not much of
+the roof left.
+
+I saw Ali Baba and Mujrim take advantage of the excitement to
+start back with the camels; and two minutes later about twenty
+men decided to follow them at a safe distance. The rest had begun
+to scatter before the train was out of sight, and I never
+again saw one of the five gentry who had introduced us to the
+whole proceedings.
+
+Then my friend the engine-driver found time to be a little curious.
+
+"What'n hell?" he asked, in the _lingua franca_ that all Indians
+are supposed to understand.
+
+So I answered him in the mother argot at a venture, and he bit.
+
+"There's a man down the line a piece who'll blow your train to
+hell," said I, "unless you pull up when he flags you."
+
+"Son of a gun, eh?"
+
+"Sure bet!"
+
+"Where you learn English?"
+
+"States," said I. "You been there too?"
+
+"Sure pop! Goin' back some time."
+
+"Not if you don't stop her when you get the hint, you won't. That
+guy down there ahead means business."
+
+I don't think he would have dared try to run the gauntlet in any
+case, for the best the engine could do with that load behind it
+was a wheezy twenty miles an hour, and the track was so out of
+repair that even that speed wasn't safe. I was willing to bet
+Grim hadn't lifted a rail or placed any obstruction in the way,
+but the driver had no means of knowing that.
+
+"Son of a gun, eh?" he repeated. "What in 'ell's 'e want?"
+
+"Nothing, if you pay attention to him. All he hankers for is
+humoring. He wants to talk."
+
+"Uh! What in 'ell's a matter with him?"
+
+"Nothing, but he'll put a crimp in your machinery unless you stay
+and chin with him."
+
+"I give him dry steam. He'll run like the devil."
+
+"Don't you believe it. He's wise. Better humor him."
+
+"Shucks! I shoot him. I shot lots o' men."
+
+"No need to shoot," said I. "This is love stuff. He's got a lady
+in the last car."
+
+"Oh, gal on the train, eh? All right. You climb back along the
+cars an' kick her off soon as you see him."
+
+"Gosh! I'd sooner kick a nest of hornets!"
+
+"You her brother?"
+
+"Not so's you'd notice it."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"She's got my gun. Barring that we're not real close related."
+
+"Uh! Those damned Bedouin fellers can't shoot for nuts. Let 'em
+fire away. I take a chance."
+
+"Ever hear of Ali Higg?" I asked him.
+
+He turned his head from peering down the blistering hot track,
+wiped the sweat from his face and hands with a filthy rag, and
+looked at me keenly.
+
+"Why? You know him?"
+
+"Yes. I asked if you do."
+
+"Son of a gun! Him and me--same father!"
+
+"You mean he's your brother?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"He's the man you've got to pull up for."
+
+"His gal on the train?"
+
+"Sure thing."
+
+He resumed his vigil, leaning over the side of the engine with
+one hand on the throttle-lever.
+
+"All right," he said. "I stop for him. Son of a gun! If he bust
+my train I kill the sucker!"
+
+I never posed as much of a diplomatist, but it seemed wise to me
+in the circumstances not to offer any further information or ask
+questions. But I was curious. It was possible that Ali Higg's
+brother had been given the task of running that train for the
+reason that no lesser luminary would have one chance in a
+thousand of reaching the destination.
+
+I never found out whether my guess was right or not, and never
+left off rating that engine-driver in any case as one of the
+world's heroes. I've a notion there is a book that might be
+written about him and his train.
+
+A polished black dot in the distance soon increased into the
+flattened egg-shaped rock, and then we saw Grim standing on the
+track with all his men.
+
+That is the safest place to stop a train from, because you avoid
+a broadside from the car-windows. True to his word the driver
+came to a standstill, and Grim came up to speak with him just as
+I jumped off. I waited, expecting to see a contretemps.
+
+"Ya Ali Higg! You fool!" said the driver. "You would kill your
+own brother? You let me go!"
+
+"Hah! You recognize me, then?" said Grim, coolly enough on
+the surface.
+
+But his poker mask was off. In that land of polygamy and
+deportations it is frequent enough that one brother does not know
+the other by sight; but it must be disconcerting, all the same,
+to have a supposititious brother sprung on you. He gave a
+perceptible start, as he had not done when first addressed as Ali
+Higg that day.
+
+_"Mashallah!"_ swore the driver. "I would know thine evil face
+with the meat stripped off it! Nevertheless, thou and I are
+brothers and this is my train. So let me go!"
+
+Grim watched Ayisha jump out of the caboose with my rifle in her
+hand, and turn to take aim at the open door, through which the
+conductor's voice came croaking blasphemy.
+
+"All right," he said. "Since thou and I are brothers, go thy way!
+_Allah ysallmak!"_
+
+The driver did not wait for a second hint, but shoved the lever
+over so hard that the wheels spun and the whole train came within
+an ace of bucking off the track. And before the caboose had
+passed us Ayisha was alongside Grim abusing him for not having
+broken the locks off the steel freight-cars.
+
+"I am a robber's wife!" she said, stamping her foot indignantly.
+"What sort of robber are you that let such loot pass free?"
+
+"Shall I rob my mother's son?" Grim asked her. "God forbid!"
+
+Then he turned to me, wondering.
+
+"Can you beat it?" he said.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+"You Got Cold Feet?"
+
+
+
+We did not have to wait long for Ali Baba, Mujrim, and the
+camels, for they had not been fools enough to dawdle, with a
+hundred and fifty balked freebooters within rifle-shot, whose
+resilient pride was likely to breed anger. You can't lead camels
+any more than horses as fast as you can ride them; unless
+stampeded they tow loggily; but the fact that two or three dozen
+mounted Arabs had elected to follow along behind and watch
+from a safe distance what might happen to the train had lent
+Ali Baba wings.
+
+And the same fact gave us wings too. We were up and away at once,
+headed eastward toward Petra, I perched on top of a baggage beast
+until Ali Baba could cut across at an angle and overtake us.
+
+So those who watched no doubt confirmed the story of Ali Higg's
+presence on the scene. Had they not from the horizon seen the
+train stopped? Did they not with their own eyes see us scoot for
+Petra? And who else than the redoubtable Ali Higg would be likely
+to own such a string of splendid camels--he who could take what
+he coveted, and never coveted anything except the best?
+
+The evidence of identity was strong enough for a judge and jury.
+Men have been hanged in America on less.
+
+But that didn't help make the rest of our course any clearer than
+a fog off Sandy Hook. The real Ali Higg was in Petra like a
+dragon in a cave, and from all accounts of him he was not the
+sort of gentleman likely to lavish sweet endearments on a rival
+who had stolen not only his thunder, but his name as well.
+
+"When in doubt go forward" is good law; but which is forward and
+which backward when you stand in the middle of a circle of doubt
+is a point that invites argument; and as soon as I could get my
+own camel I rode up beside Grim to find out whether our leader
+had a real plan or was only guessing.
+
+But he seemed in no doubt at all, only satisfied, with the air of
+a scientist who has at last found the key to a natural puzzle. I
+found him chuckling.
+
+"That explains a hundred things," he said.
+
+"What does?"
+
+"Why, my likeness to Ali Higg. It's evidently so. I've often been
+kept awake wondering why strangers--Bedouins mostly--would show
+me such deference until they found out who I really am, and after
+that would have to be handled without gloves. It bothered me. It
+looked as if I had some natural gift that I couldn't identify,
+and that got smothered as soon as I put mere brains to work.
+
+"But I see now; they mistook me for the robber, and the reaction
+when they found out I was some one less like the devil made them
+act like school-kids who think they can guy the teacher. Now I
+understand, I'll do better."
+
+"The point is," said I, "that you're established as the robber
+now, and here we are riding straight for his den. Can we fight
+him and his two hundred?"
+
+"Fighting is a fool's game ten times out of nine," he answered.
+"That's to say, it's always a fool who starts the fight. The
+wise man waits until fighting is the only resource that's
+left to him."
+
+"Why not wait, then, and watch points?"
+
+"Because we're not dealing with a wise man; he's only clever and
+drastic. If we wait word's bound to reach him that some one's
+posing as himself, and he'll sally forth to make an example of
+us--do a good job of it too!
+
+"I'd hate to be caught out in the desert with twenty men by Ali
+Higg! He's a rip-roaring typhoon. But the worst typhoon the world
+ever saw had a soft spot in the middle.
+
+"You know what the Arab say? `A dog can scratch fleas, but not
+worms in his belly!' We've got to be worms in the belly of Ali
+Higg, and where the man is there will be his belly also. We've
+got to stage what the movie people call a close-up."
+
+Almost every one in the outfit had a different view of the
+situation, although all agreed that Grim was the man to stay
+with. Narayan Singh, growling in my ear incessantly, scented
+intrigue, and his Sikh blood tingled at the thought; he began to
+look more tolerantly on Ayisha as a mere instrument whom Grim
+would find some chance of using.
+
+"For the cleverest woman whom the devil ever sent to ruin men is
+after all but a lie that engulfs the liar. I know that man
+Jimgrim. She will dig a pit, but he will not fall into it. It may
+be that we shall all die together, but what of that?"
+
+Ayisha, on the other hand, was getting nervous. Grim avoided her.
+She was reduced to questioning others, edging the little
+Bishareen alongside each in turn. She seemed no longer able to
+suffer the close confinement of the _shibriyah,_ but endured the
+scorching sun and desert flies with less discomfort than the rest
+of us betrayed, camels included.
+
+"What will he do? Is he mad? Does he think that the Lion of Petra
+is a camel to be managed with a rope and a stick?
+
+"I have given him his chance; because of my words men already
+fear him. Why doesn't he plunder, then, and run to his own home?
+Why doesn't he talk with me and let me tell him what to do next?
+I know all these people--all their villages--everything!"
+
+"All women know too much, yet never what is needful," Ali
+Baba answered.
+
+He was frankly jubilant. Son and grandson of robbers by
+profession, father and grandfather of educated thieves, life
+meant lawlessness to him, and he could see nothing but honest
+pleasure and the chance of profit in Grim's predicament. He loved
+Grim, as all Arabs do love the foreigner who understands them,
+deploring nothing except that unintelligible loyalty to a Western
+code of morals that according to Ali Baba's lights consisted of
+pure foolishness. And now, as he saw it, Grim stood committed to
+a course that could only lead to trickery. And all trickery must
+pave the way for plunder. And plundering was fun.
+
+His sons and grandsons in varying degree saw matters from the old
+man's viewpoint, although, having had rather less experience of
+it, they were not quite so confident of Grim's generalship; but
+they made up for that by perfectly dog-like devotion to "the old
+man, their father," whose word and whose interpretation of the
+Koran was the only law they knew.
+
+What tickled their fancy most was Ali Baba's cleverness in egging
+on Ayisha to advertise Grim as Ali Higg. Again and again on the
+march that day, in spite of the grilling heat, and thirst and
+flies, they burst into roars of laughter over it, chaffing
+Ayisha's four men unmercifully.
+
+And after a while Mahommed, the youngest of Ali Baba's sons,
+regarded by all the others as the poet of the band and therefore
+the least responsible and most to be humored in his whims, made
+up a song about it all. It called for something more than
+boisterous spirits; it needed the fire of enthusiasm and
+ingrained pluck to set them all singing behind him in despite of
+the desert heat and the dazzling, bleak, unwatered view. They
+sang the louder in defiance of the elements.
+
+   "Lord of the desert is Ali Higg!
+       _Akbar! Akbar!_ *
+   Lord of the gardens of grape and fig.
+       _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Lord of the palm and clustered date.
+   _Mishmish,_** olive and water sate
+   Hunger and thirst in Ali's gate!
+       _Akbar! Akbar! Akbar Ali Higg!_
+
+   "Lion of lions and lord of lords!
+       _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Chief of lances, prince of swords!
+       _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Red with blood is the realm he owns!
+   Bzz-u-wzz-uzz the blood-fly drones!
+   Crack-ak-ak-ak! The crunching bones!
+       _Akbar! Akbar! Akbar Ali Higg!_
+
+   "Jackals feed on Ali's trail!
+       _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Speed and strength and numbers fail!
+        _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Swooping along in a cloud of sand,
+   Killing and conquering out of hand
+   Hasten the slayers of Ali's band!
+        _Akbar! Akbar! Akbar Ali Higg!_
+
+   "Camel and horse and fat-tail sheep,
+        _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Ali's kite-eyed herdsmen keep!
+        _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Gold and silver and gems of the best,
+   Amber and linen and silks attest
+   What are the profits of Ali's quest!
+       _Akbar! Akbar! Akbar Ali Higg!_
+
+   "Fair are the fortunes of Ali's men!
+        _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Each has slave-women eight or ten!
+        _Akbar! Akbar!_
+   Ho! Where the dust of the desert swirls
+   Over the plain as his cohort whirls,
+   Oho! the screams of the plundered girls!
+       _Akbar! Akbar! Akbar Ali Higg!_"
+
+-------------
+* Akbar means "great."
+
+** Mishmish--apricot. In that land of drought and desolation the
+highest compliment you can pay a man is to call him lord of water
+and ripening fruit.
+-------------
+
+There was any amount more of it, but most of the rest was not
+polite enough for print, because the Arab likes to enter into
+details. It sounded much better in Arabic, anyhow. And more and
+more frequently as the song grew lurid and they warmed to the
+refrain they made their point by changing the third Akbar
+into Jimgrim:
+
+   _"Akbar! Akbar! Jimgrim Ali Higg!"_
+
+It suited their sense of humor finely to announce to the wind and
+the kites that Grim, the strict, straight, ethical American was a
+ravisher of virgins and a slitter of offenseless throats, who
+knew no mercy--a man without law in this world or prospect of
+peace in the next.
+
+When we reached an oasis about noon--sweet water and thirty or
+forty palm-trees--and simply had to camp there because the camels
+were exhausted after a night and half a day of strenuous
+marching, they were still so full of high spirits that they had
+to work them off somehow; and unwittingly I provided the excuse.
+
+I was on the lee side of a camel, opening a boil in Mujrim's leg
+with his razor, when I caught sight of one of the younger men
+trying to burgle the medicine-chest. I yelled at him, and
+naturally gashed my patient's leg, who rose in giant wrath and
+with enormous fairness smote the real culprit.
+
+The resulting blasphemous bad language brought Ali Baba to the
+scene at once as peacemaker, with all the gang behind him; and in
+a minute they had all joined hands, with Mahommed standing in the
+center, and were dancing like a lot of pouter-pigeons, singing a
+new song about Mujrim's leg, and a razor, and blood on the sand,
+and palm-trees, and a saint, and my superhuman ability to let
+daylight into the very heart of boils. You don't have to believe
+any one who tells you that Arabs haven't humor.
+
+There were the ruins of half a dozen mud-walled huts near the
+spring in that oasis. There had once been a sort of rampart and a
+gate, but there was hardly enough of that left to show where it
+stood. The only building still quite intact was a stone tomb of
+about the height of a man, with a plastered cupola roof; and Ali
+Baba, who always knew everything, swore that was a great saint's
+grave, and that there was much virtue and good luck to be gained
+by praying inside the tomb. So they all took turns to go in and
+pray fervently--two-bow prayers as they called them--reciting
+thereafter such scripture as Ali Baba thought suitable and
+could remember.
+
+Hunting about in the ruins I found indubitable human bones.
+Ayisha, when asked about it, said that Ali Higg had raided the
+place several months ago and killed or captured every one.
+
+"Because he is lord of the waters," she explained, and seemed to
+think that reason unassailable.
+
+There was quite a dispute at that place as to who should stand
+first guard while the rest of us slept, but Grim settled it by
+casting lots with date-stones in a way that was new, but that
+seemed to satisfy every one--especially as the first watch fell
+to Narayan Singh and me.
+
+"That is because the rest of us said our prayers," explained Ali
+Baba piously.
+
+But I think it was really because Grim knew how to play tricks
+with the date-stones.
+
+The Sikh and I kept making the circuit of the palm-trees and
+talking to keep each other from getting too sleepy, for there is
+no time when desire to sleep so loads you down as in the noon
+heat after a long march. You very often can't sleep then because
+of the very heat that makes you drowsy; but the glare has been so
+trying to your eyes that you yearn to shut them, and inertia sits
+on your spine and shoulders like a load of lead.
+
+"Thou and I must watch that woman, sahib," said Narayan Singh.
+"Our Jimgrim will make use of her; but how shall he do that if
+her heart changes? As long as she hopes to snare him I am not
+afraid of her. But what if it should be she who grows afraid as
+we get nearer to Ali Higg's nest? A woman afraid is worse than a
+man with a dagger in the dark. Suppose she bolts to Ali Higg and
+lays information against us--what then?"
+
+I tried to argue him out of his anxiety, because I wanted to
+sleep when my turn came. My habit of never looking for trouble is
+a lovely one until trouble starts; but the Sikh, being only a
+heathen, could not be persuaded; so I had to promise him that,
+turn about, four hours on and four off, he and I would watch
+Ayisha faithfully until such time as Grim should make other
+disposition of our services or there should be no more need.
+
+"And I think, sahib, that it will be best to shoot or stab her
+without argument if she turns treacherous."
+
+But I never stabbed or shot a woman yet. I have a loose-kneed
+prejudice against it. I said so.
+
+"Then, sahib, if it be your turn on watch, and you detect
+treachery, summon me, and I will send her to _Jehannum."_ [Hell]
+
+"I think we ought to speak to Jimgrim about it," I objected. "He
+might have other plans."
+
+The Sikh turned that over in his mind during one whole circuit of
+the palm-trees, stroking his great beard with his right hand the
+while as if the friction would inspire his brain.
+
+"Jimgrim will say she is a woman and therefore must not be killed
+in any event," he answered at last. "But that is of the nature of
+his error, all men suffering delusion in some form, since none is
+perfect. If we submit the problem to him he will answer wrongly;
+but we shall then have received orders, which, as faithful men,
+we must not disobey.
+
+"As concerns ourselves, being men without specific orders on that
+point, the question is simple: Of that woman and that man, if the
+one must live and the other die, which shall it be? And I say
+Jimgrim shall live, if I die afterward even by his hand for it."
+
+It sounded logical. The arguments with which an unselfish, honest
+fellow deceives himself into wrong-doing always do bear quite a
+lot of investigation. But I was at sea before the mast once,
+where I learned painfully that the captain commands the ship; not
+even the notions of the buckiest bucko mate amount to as much as
+a barnacle's bootlace if the old man disagrees from them.
+
+"What makes you think he doesn't understand the obvious danger of
+Ayisha?" said I.
+
+"No man from the West ever understood a woman of the East,"
+he answered.
+
+That being obviously true--Adam did not understand Eve, and no
+man from anywhere has understood any woman since--I had to rack
+my brains for a different argument.
+
+"There are two sure ways of discovering treason," I said at last.
+"One way is to pick a quarrel with the person you suspect. But
+the safer way is to seem very friendly.
+
+"Now--why don't you make love to her? You're a fine, big,
+handsome man. I don't suppose she'll prefer you in her heart to
+Jimgrim, but she'll not be ashamed to appear to respond, and if
+she has evil intentions she will surely seek to take advantage of
+your passion to forward her own plans. Seeking to make use of
+you, she will betray herself."
+
+"So speaks the jackal to the tiger. `This way, sahib! That way,
+sahib! A broad-horned sambhur to be killed, worthy of your
+honor's strength!' Why don't you make love to her?"
+
+"Because I'm afraid," said I quite frankly. "If I thought I could
+get away with it I'd try. But she'd laugh at me, whereas your
+attentions might flatter her."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+He stroked his great beard again, and twisted his mustache.
+
+"I'm sure of it."
+
+_"Atcha._ We shall see. I will give the trollop that one chance.
+It may be she will preserve her head on her shoulders yet by
+confiding in me; for if I can forewarn Jimgrim of her plans I
+will reckon it beneath my dignity to use a sword on her. So. It
+is settled. We shall see."
+
+You know that warm glow of vanity that sweeps over you when
+another fellow concedes your plan to be better than his? It is
+rather like the effect of certain drugs--a highly agreeable
+sensation while it lasts.
+
+But it was tempered in my case by that reference he had made to a
+jackal, and I'm still left wondering how much justice there was
+in the insinuation. Narayan Singh and I are friends right down to
+this minute, but I am none the less conscious of a query that
+seems to spoil confidence a little.
+
+He, being master of himself by training, and used to sleeping
+when he saw fit, volunteered to take the first four-hour watch on
+Ayisha, so I got as much sleep as the flies and the snores of the
+rest of the gang would permit, and awoke toward evening to the
+sound of unaccustomed voices outside my tent. There was one voice
+with a squeak in it like a rusty wheel that I had certainly never
+heard before.
+
+It seemed we had made some prisoners. There were three seedy-looking
+camels kneeling over by Grim's tent, and three almost as seedy-looking
+individuals were talking to Grim in the midst of our camp, with
+most of our gang seated in a semicircle listening. Grim had out
+his traveling water-pipe for the sake of effect, and was puffing
+away at it while he meditated on the information that was being
+drawn forth gradually. Ayisha was seated on the mat beside him.
+
+The man with the squeak in his voice, who did most of the
+talking, was a very dark-skinned fellow with a short, coal-black,
+curly beard. He had little gold rings in his ears, and in spite
+of the filthy condition of his clothes he wore an opulent
+look--the sort that suggests intimate acquaintance with the
+fabled riches of the East. I have seen a Moor, who hadn't a coin
+with which to bless himself, create exactly the same impression
+by simply being dark and handsome.
+
+He was eating dates while he talked, so I suppose Grim had been
+to some pains to make him feel welcome. But he hadn't been
+there long.
+
+_"Wallahi!"_ he said as I joined the circle. "But Your Honor is
+surely Ali Higg, and that is the lady Ayisha! Your Honor is
+pleased to pretend otherwise, but am I blind? I, who come
+straight from Petra where Your Honor paid me, am not thus
+easily deceived!
+
+"Lo, the good camels! It was easy to make a wide circuit, and
+reach this place a day ahead of me; but what is Your Honor's
+purpose? What do you want with me, O Lion of Petra?"
+
+"Nevertheless," said Grim, "I am not Ali Higg, who styles himself
+Lion of Petra."
+
+"Is that not the lady Ayisha?" he retorted. "True, I have only
+seen you in the dark, but have I not seen her at the least ten
+times? Was it not she who had my servant flogged on a former
+occasion because he likened her to other women?"
+
+Grim said nothing to that. Ayisha drew the embroidered head-cloth
+over her face, I suppose to hide a smile.
+
+"For what purpose did you visit Petra?" Grim inquired.
+
+_"Mashalla!_ Did I not receive payment from Your Honor? I do
+not understand!"
+
+"It is I who do not understand," said Grim. "Repeat to me what
+you did at Petra."
+
+"But Your Honor knows!"
+
+"Very well. Return with me to Petra. I have reasons for asking."
+
+_"Wallahi!_ If it suits Your Honor's humor to make me tell you a
+tenth time what I have nine times said already, I have a tongue
+that wags. But I see that another has been telling tales of me
+behind my back, making me out a liar for his own purposes.
+_Inshallah,_ it shall be found that my tale varies by less than
+the ten-thousandth part of the width of a hair from what I have
+told already."
+
+"Proceed," said Grim. "I listen."
+
+"Thus then: While in Jaffa, having received Your Honor's letter
+by the hand of Shabbas Ali, requesting me to spy on the British
+troops, I made all haste, laying aside my own affairs and
+journeying wherever the trail of information led me. I asked
+questions, but was not content with asking. I went and looked. I
+made friends with subordinate officials, some of whom I bribed to
+show me written orders removed from the desks of commanding officers.
+
+"I ascertained all particulars and found this to be the fact:
+That whereas there are small bodies of troops scattered in
+certain places, those are needed for local protection of the
+places where they are; and that whereas there is at Ludd an army
+of more than twenty thousand men, with guns, great store of
+supplies, cavalry, and aeroplanes, that army is held in readiness
+to go to Egypt and cannot for the present be sent against you.
+Moreover, the long march, so difficult for guns and supply-wagons,
+from there to Petra, would not be attempted during the hot season.
+So Your Honor is safe from attack."
+
+"Uh! So you say!" Grim grunted.
+
+You could almost hear the wheels click inside his head as he
+tried to puzzle out what use to make of this man. One thing was
+clear enough: the Lion of Petra was well informed. It was
+nothing less than fact that on no account could an expedition be
+undertaken against him for a long time. And it was fair, therefore,
+to presume that in his Petra fastness the robber chief would be
+feeling confident, and would be that much more difficult to bluff.
+
+But it is one advantage of that land that you may be deliberate
+without causing impatience or losing respect. Rather the
+contrary; the Arab values your decisions all the more for
+being reached after several minutes of silent thought.
+
+Neither our own gang nor the prisoner was in the least disturbed
+by Grim's taking his time, and only Narayan Singh, still
+postponing his sleep, was anxious when Ayisha leaned her head
+close to Grim's and whispered. Grim did not nod or shake his head
+or make any recognition of her presence--for a real Arab would
+not have dreamed of doing so--but it was she who gave him the
+right suggestion, although her intention was totally different
+from his.
+
+"You lie," he said suddenly.
+
+"Allah!"
+
+"There is an army making ready now to march on Petra."
+
+"As Allah is my witness, there is no such thing."
+
+"You shall return to Petra."
+
+"But Your Honor knows I am in great haste. My own small affairs
+at Jaffa, God knows, have been neglected. How shall I spare time
+to return to Petra?"
+
+"And there you shall reverse your story."
+
+"Allah!"
+
+"You shall tell the very numbers and equipment of the army that
+makes ready."
+
+"May He who never sleeps preserve me! Am I mad, or dreaming? In
+Petra I have told Your Honor a true tale; shall I return to Petra
+in order to tell you a lie? O Lord of the limits of the desert,
+listen to me! I have property in Jaffa; I must attend to it."
+
+"I know you have. By the wharf where the Greeks land melons from
+Egypt, isn't it? Three godowns and a cafe on the corner? A
+nice property."
+
+He paused, and I think he was turning over in his mind just how
+far it would be wise to go with all those others listening; for
+every word he let fall was sure to be discussed and discussed
+again at the next halting-place.
+
+"Which is better--to return to Petra and obey, or to lose
+that property?"
+
+"How shall I lose it? Hah! Your Honor is pleased to joke. You
+will invade Palestine as far as Jaffa?"
+
+"For those who live under British protection and yet spy against
+the British are not so well treated by them as those who spy on
+their behalf."
+
+"Maybe. When they are caught! When they have caught a fox they
+may skin him."
+
+"And I am not Ali Higg, the Lion of Petra."
+
+"Then who in the name of the Prophet are you, with the Lion's
+wife at your side?"
+
+"That is none of your business. You come back to Petra with me.
+No, not your men; they go on. You alone. I have spoken."
+
+In vain the man protested. He did not believe for a moment that
+Grim was not Ali Higg, and he felt sure that he was being
+kidnaped for some frightful fate, although Grim's mildness of
+demeanor must have puzzled him; for according to accounts the
+real Lion of Petra was a roaring beast.
+
+Grim assigned two men to watch him, and gave the order to strike
+camp, refusing to listen to any further argument. And since the
+man's camels were too exhausted to march at once he ordered all
+three left behind at the oasis and put the prisoner on one of our
+baggage animals.
+
+Just as we were ready to start he walked over to the two men and
+threatened them with frightful torture unless they hurried
+westward the minute the camels were fit to move on. It was pretty
+obvious that they were only too glad to obey; and Yussuf, our
+prisoner, made obedience more certain by shouting messages to
+them to be delivered to friends in Jaffa.
+
+So Narayan Singh cast appraising eyes on the _shibriyah,_ and
+curled up in it like a big dog, without troubling to ask Ayisha's
+permission. Sleep was his first intention, but he was for killing
+two birds with one stone; I did not realize at the time what a
+chance that was going to provide for making the first advances to
+the lady.
+
+I rode forward beside Grim, who guided us with a compass on his
+wrist until the stars came out; and for hours on end we went side
+by side, saying nothing, listening to the monotonous jangle of
+his camel bell and the obligato of the bells behind. It was music
+that suited our mood, harmonizing perfectly with the solemn
+marvel of a desert sunset and the velvety, cool silence of the
+starlit night.
+
+"That man Yussuf had me guessing," he said at last. "I couldn't
+place him. Knew his face, but that was all. Then she whispered
+something about his being a wind that carries smells from one
+village to the next and back again, spying against both sides at
+the same time. Then I remembered. He used to spy for us against
+the Turks and sell them information about us at the same time.
+Nearly got shot for it, but was let off because his services had
+really been valuable. I remember his being sent down to Jaffa and
+told to stay put."
+
+"But what in thunder are you going to do with him?" I asked. "He
+thinks you're Ali Higg"
+
+Grim chuckled.
+
+"Wonder what Ali Higg will say when he's confronted by Ali Higg!"
+
+"Wonder what he'll do, you mean, don't you!"
+
+"What d'you keep looking back for?"
+
+"Just keeping tabs on Ayisha."
+
+"No need to worry about her. Now we've got Yussuf on our string
+it's a cinch we can use her whichever way the cat jumps. She'll
+be afraid he'll tell tales about her."
+
+"Hell!" I said. "It seems to me this whole procession's crazy!
+The best we've got with us is a gang of professional thieves.
+
+"The farther we go the more we load up with sure-fire traitors.
+First Ayisha; she'd cut throats at so much per. Her four men,
+who'd change sides once an hour if they were made afraid that
+often. Now this Yussuf--a professional spy, whose habit you say
+is to betray both sides."
+
+"Pretty good outfit, I'll tell the world," he answered.
+
+"Good for what?"
+
+"You got cold feet?"
+
+"I've got cold judgment. We're crazy. We haven't a chance in a
+million of getting the best of an outlaw with two hundred men."
+
+"We can try, can't we?"
+
+"Yes, and die, can't we!"
+
+"Well--we might do worse. I'd sooner croak in harness than have
+an eight-horse funeral. But say, if you don't like it you go
+back and join those two fellows at the oasis. There'll be no
+hard words."
+
+But I felt too afraid of my own opinion of myself to turn back at
+that stage of the game.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+"He Cools His Wrath in the Moonlight, Communing with Allah!"
+
+
+
+Now the desert at full moon is as light as Broadway, and the only
+shadows are those the camels cast, than which there is nothing
+more weird in the whole range of phantasmagoria. We looked like a
+string of glistening ghosts accompanied by goblins of a fourth
+dimension mocking us, and though you couldn't see the details of
+men's faces, looking back along the line you could see every
+movement and distinguish man from man.
+
+About midnight Ayisha made up her mind to enjoy the _shibriyah,_
+more, I suspect, for the sake of annoying the Sikh than because
+she really wanted it. So she ranged alongside, and chiefly
+because I was curious and chose to be amused, but partly because
+of my league with Narayan Singh to keep watch on her, I checked
+my protesting camel and let him drop back into place behind them.
+
+I knew Narayan Singh was awake, for I had seen the glow of his
+cigarette through the curtains ten minutes before; but he
+pretended to be asleep, so that she had to get the camels flank
+to flank and put her hand inside the curtains to awake him. Then
+he did the obvious thing and seized her hand, and I heard his
+bass voice answering her shrill protests. I don't know why, but
+the moonlight that made all things clear seemed also to make
+words more than usually distinct.
+
+"Ah!" he boomed. "I dreamed of paradise. I awake and find a houri
+with her hand in mine! Il-hamd'ul-illah!* I Enter, beloved! Why
+waste the moonlight hours?" [* Thanks be to God!]
+
+"Pig!" she retorted. "Father of bristles! Let my hand go!"
+
+"Nay, lovely one! I awake--I see--I understand; thou art not a
+houri after all, but that same Ayisha I have loved in secret all
+these burning days! I, who had resolved that gold and honor were
+as feathers in the scale against thy kisses, am I blessed as last?"
+
+"Cursed by black ifrits, thou son of an Afghan pig! Let me go,
+and get out of that _shibriyah!"_
+
+"Such eyes! Behold, the moon is pale beside them, and the stars
+mere drops of sweat on the sky's dull cheek! Such loveliness as
+thine, beloved, needs a warrior to worship it--such a man as I,
+who would cut the throats of kings for a kind word from thee!"
+
+Don't forget, you fellows who have to call on a girl a dozen
+Sunday evenings in succession before she will go to the movies or
+condescend to sit out a dance with you, that east of the
+fifteenth meridian the situation is reversed, and the man who
+wasn't swift about his wooing would stand no chance at all.
+Modesty of approach is reckoned a sure sign of unworthiness, and
+deference as cowardice that fears to seize an opportunity.
+
+"An Indian lover and a boasting louse are one," she answered;
+but she laughed as she said it, and her voice had lost the
+shrill note.
+
+"Hah! Try me!" he retorted, tugging at her hand again, and
+whether or not she tried really hard to release it she failed.
+"Boasts should be put to the test, beloved! We of the North have
+a way of understanding our performance. I would burn and lay
+waste cities for thy sake! Come!"
+
+Her laugh struck a bell-like note now. There was a hint of
+pleasure in it, and more than a hint of thoughtfulness. You know
+those overtones of a bell that go fading away into the infinite,
+in touch, somehow, with thoughts that haven't reached any of us
+yet except the man who made the bell.
+
+"Ah! Afghans are all alike!"
+
+Sikhs say that of Afghans too, and Afghans say the same thing of
+the Sikhs.
+
+"You would say anything for me; but as for cutting throats and
+laying waste, I myself would be the very first victim. Thy love,
+I think, would burn up and be ashes faster than the cities I
+should never see."
+
+"Cities! I will take you to all the cities! You shall have your
+will of the richest! Covet pearls, and I will burn the feet of
+jewelers until they beg you to take their costliest! Covet
+rubies, and I will plunder them from the eyes of temple gods!
+Covet gold, and I will melt down the throne of a maharajah to
+make bracelets for your ankles!"
+
+_"Wallahi!_ You speak like a braggart."
+
+"Braggart? I? Nay, I am a lover whose words go lamely. They are
+but chaff blown along the wind of great accomplishment. With thee
+to fight for I would dare the very rage of Ali Higg!"
+
+He still held her hand. She waited about a minute before answering.
+
+"Which Ali Higg?" she asked at last.
+
+"Any Ali Higg! All Ali Higgs! As lions go down beneath the feet
+of elephants so shall the Lion of Petra fail before me!"
+
+"One at a time!" she laughed. "There is one Ali Higg who could
+command you with a word--another who could order your carcass
+thrown to the vultures. Words first, since your boastings are all
+words! I say that, for all your brave words, this Ali Higg who
+rides ahead of us can make you slay me for a word of praise
+from him."
+
+"You mean, beloved, you could make me slay him for a word of
+praise from you!" the Sikh lied glibly.
+
+"But I might not want him slain."
+
+"Have him made into a cripple, then--a ruin of a man, for daring
+to displease you!"
+
+"But he pleases me!"
+
+"Aha! I am jealous! By the beard of the Prophet, Ayisha, beware
+of my jealousy! I am a man of few words but sudden deeds! Is
+there a man who stands in my way? May Allah show compassion on
+him, for he is like to need it!"
+
+He was so fervid in his avowals that he almost convinced
+me--almost made me believe that his private agreement with
+me had been a camouflage for his real intentions.
+
+There is precious little of which my friend Narayan Singh isn't
+capable in the way of romantic soldiering; he ought to have been
+born two or three hundred years ago as, in fact, according to his
+reincarnating creed, he was. Perhaps he remembers past lives so
+vividly that he lives them over again. I wish I could remember a
+past life or two.
+
+Ayisha was about to answer him when Grim's shrill bosun's whistle
+that he keeps for emergencies whined from in front, and the
+sleepy-looking line awoke with a start. Every single rifle down
+the length of the caravan, including mine, was unslung in a
+second and the click of the sliding bolts was as businesslike as
+if we had been a squad on the parade-ground. Narayan Singh, rifle
+in hand, sprang on to Ayisha's little Bishareen, and she jumped
+into the _shibriyah,_ like a pair doing stunts at the circus.
+
+So far good. But the rest was amateurish. We milled badly. Grim
+away in front had halted to let the line close, and we swarmed
+around him like a herd of steers that smell wolves, and nobody
+seemed to know which way to look, or what to do next.
+
+I was right in the midst of the mess, with a camel on either side
+trying to get its teeth into me, and what with Grim's shouting to
+get the tangle straightened, and our all trying to obey at once,
+it was some minutes before I got the hang of things. In fact, I
+think I understood last.
+
+We were already surrounded perfectly on three sides by camel-men
+who kept out of reasonable rifle-range and stalked us like dark
+ghosts from the rear. They resembled a drag-net, drawing us in
+the direction of Petra, and the only unblocked segment of the
+circle was exactly in front of us. Every time I tried to count
+them there seemed more than before, and there were certainly over
+a hundred.
+
+I got one close look at Grim's face, and knew he had made his
+mind up what to do; but all the men were shouting different
+advice and it was a question whether he would be able to get
+control before a disaster happened. I said nothing and did
+nothing but kept fairly close to him. Narayan Singh found his
+proper place alongside me, with the halter of Ayisha's camel in
+his hand; and he said nothing either.
+
+Suddenly Grim reached out and seized old Ali Baba by the
+shoulder, drawing him close and growling into his ear. I could
+not catch the words, but he repeated them again and again, and
+Ali Baba nodded vehemently. Not a shot had been fired yet, for
+Grim had forbidden it, and the other side showed no disposition
+to do other than surround us at a safe distance. But I noticed
+they were reducing their estimate of safety and seemed to be
+gradually closing in for a concerted rush from all sides at once.
+
+Then two things happened suddenly. Out of the open horizon in
+front, from between two great mounds that looked like ant-heaps,
+three figures emerged on camels, apparently all alone and
+unsupported. The one in the middle on the tallest camel made a
+signal with a long strip of cloth waved like a semaphore against
+the moonlight.
+
+Instantly the opposing force began to close in, and Ali Baba
+proved his mettle. Those sons and grandsons obeyed his order as
+efficiently as he did Grim's. They made a feint all in a cluster
+together straight for the widest gap in the circle behind us.
+
+The enemy drew off to a safer distance, whereat Ali Baba wheeled
+and charged another segment of the circle, widening it again.
+Still not a shot had been fired by either side.
+
+Around Grim now were Narayan Singh, Ayisha, and myself with our
+prisoner Yussuf, and Ayisha's four. Grim watched his chance and
+sent me to bring back four of Ali Baba's men, and by the time I
+had done that he had lessened the distance perceptibly between
+himself and the three lone individuals in front. He was leaning
+low over his camel, peering at the three like a seaman staring
+from a crow's-nest in a fog.
+
+It was a weird business--a swiftly played chess game, almost
+noiseless; for wherever Ali Baba charged the enemy drew off,
+while the rest came closer until they were charged in turn.
+
+"It's obvious we're intended to be made prisoners," Grim said to
+me at last. "But I think it's obvious we're not going to be."
+
+Nevertheless, I understood nothing of his plan, except that our
+little group kept drawing closer to the three, one of whom seemed
+in command of the other side. At the moment I suspected that Grim
+was one of those officers who are splendid at intelligence work
+and at playing a lone hand, but less than ordinary in the field;
+Ali Baba looked like the man of action.
+
+Why, with all that brave old man's ability to swing and spur his
+gang in absolute control, had not the lot of us burst through the
+circling enemy and made a bolt for it? That was what I should
+have done.
+
+But suddenly Grim turned and pushed the muzzle of his pistol into
+Ayisha's face as she leaned out of the _shibrayah_ to watch. It
+caught her under the jawbone, so that she could not see what his
+finger was doing, and did not dare try to move away.
+
+"Now shout!" he ordered her. "Tell 'em your name _Wallahi!_ Yell,
+or I'll kill you."
+
+She let out a bleat like a frightened goat, that might have been
+audible thirty yards away if there were no other noise.
+
+"Louder! I'll blow your brains out if you disobey!"
+
+So she screamed at the top of her lungs, making her voice carry
+as all desert people can. And after she had called three times
+she was answered by a clear, contralto woman's voice.
+
+"Ay-ish-a! O Ay-ish-a!"
+
+"Jael! Jael!" she called back; and at that the rider of the
+middle camel waved the cloth again.
+
+As fast as they caught sight of it--in tens and twenties--the
+oncoming riders halted.
+
+But Ali Baba did not stand still. Neither did we. The three lone
+individuals in front of us began to approach.
+
+"Come on!" said Grim. "Now's our chance!"
+
+And at last I saw his idea. I did not know which to admire more,
+the man who had thought of it in that sudden crisis, or Ali Baba
+who had understood so swiftly and carried out his part so well.
+But there was no time for admiration then.
+
+All together--Ali Baba and his men along one side of a
+right-angle and we from the other--we swooped on the three. And
+there were nine or ten shots fired before we closed on them,
+though none by our side.
+
+My camel went down under me twenty yards before we reached them.
+Two other camels were killed, and one of Ali Baba's sons was
+grazed. But in another second we had captured two men and a
+woman, and it was too late for the spectators to do anything,
+unless they cared to risk killing their own leader.
+
+I thrust my way on foot through the milling camels, for I wanted
+to be in at the death, as it were, and I saw Grim take the
+woman's rifle away. She looked more surprised than any one I have
+ever seen--more so than a man I once saw shot in the stomach who
+looked suddenly into the next world and did not like it.
+
+"Shout to 'em, Jael!" he ordered in plain English. "Call 'em off,
+or I'll kill you! Shout to 'em; d'you hear!"
+
+"Ayisha! What does this mean? Ali? Ali Higg? You here? I
+don't understand!"
+
+"You'll be dead before you understand if you don't call those men
+off," Grim answered; and his pistol demonstrated that he meant
+it, for her men were closing in on us.
+
+So she knelt up on her camel and cried out that Ali Higg was
+there, bidding them keep their distance.
+
+"But what does this mean, Ali? And you speak English? Since when?
+Oh, I must be mad! You are not Ali Higg! No! I see now you are
+not, but . . ."
+
+She turned on Ayisha and spoke in Arabic: "Ayisha, what does this
+mean? Answer me!"
+
+But Ayisha said nothing. She chose to get back between the
+curtains of the _shibriyah,_ and I saw Narayan Singh on the far
+side whispering to her.
+
+"For," as he told me afterward, "the time to persuade a woman you
+are her friend is when she is afraid or distracted by doubt. At
+all other times she is like a leopard; but then she is like a
+lost sheep!"
+
+The silence was at an end now. Every one was shouting; the
+real Ali Higg's men wanting to know what had happened, and
+Ali Baba's answering them with threats if they dared disobey
+and come closer. The effect was exactly as if the figures on a
+motion-picture screen could be heard calling back and forth.
+
+The two men whom we had captured with the woman Jael were silent,
+staring hard at Grim as if they saw a vision; and Yussuf, the
+prisoner we had made at the oasis, tried to talk to them, but
+they would not listen to him; the drama was too absorbing. Jael
+herself, inclined to be panicky at first, was recovering
+self-possession by rapid stages, and grew silent.
+
+She hardly looked like a woman until you came quite close to her,
+for she was dressed like a man, in the regular Bedouin cloak and
+head-gear, with a bandolier full of cartridges. But her hair
+had come unbound, and one long reddish lock of it was over
+her shoulder.
+
+She had a good-looking, strong face, badly freckled, and was
+probably about forty years old, although that much was hard
+guessing in the moonlight; for the rest, she looked like the
+incarnation of activity--standing still, but only by suppression.
+
+"Now Jael Higg," said Grim, "we'll have no squeamishness about
+sex. I'm in a tight place, and you'll obey orders or take the
+consequences. We're going to Petra, the lot of us."
+
+"You! Are coming with me? To Petra?"
+
+"Yes. And we've escort enough. Who commands those men?"
+
+"I!"
+
+"Yes, yes. But who's at the head of them now?"
+
+"Ibrahim ben Ah."
+
+"Call out for Ibrahim ben Ah to come here to speak with Ali Higg,
+and watch that he comes alone," Grim ordered, and two or three of
+Ali Baba's men went off to obey. "Now, Jael, you do the talking.
+Understand me, though; this pistol has a way of going off quite
+suddenly when the trigger is pressed. Answer: What village were
+you intending to raid?"
+
+"None."
+
+"No use lying. Ali Higg's spy brought word to him that the
+British are engaged elsewhere. Raid follows promptly, of course.
+Now, out with it! I don't need you at Petra; Ayisha will serve my
+purpose there. You've ten seconds before I pull the trigger.
+Where was this raid headed for?"
+
+"El-Maan." "Why?"
+
+"That place has become too independent. The tribes meet there and
+plan raids on their own account."
+
+"Uh-huh. That sounds fairly credible. Now, observe--I pass my
+pistol to this Indian."
+
+He handed it to me.
+
+"He will shoot you dead if you make one false move. You will tell
+Ibrahim ben Ah to take all his men at once to that next oasis on
+the way to El-Maan, and to wait there for yourself and Ali Higg,
+to wait as long as three days if necessary. Say you will join
+them there and lead the raid. You understand me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You understand that you will die immediately if you disobey?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He will ask what the shooting meant just now. You will answer
+that there was a mistake owing to the darkness, and that Ali Higg
+is in a great rage, and he had better make himself scarce. If he
+asks others questions, curse him and tell him to be off.
+
+"And one last warning, Jael Higg! Obey me exactly, and you shall
+see your husband in Petra. Disobey by as much as a word or a sign
+and you're dead. Do we understand each other?"
+
+"You really mean it? You will go to Petra?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have seen fools, and men in love, and gamblers, but you are
+the greatest madman of them all," she answered. "Very well, I
+will speak to him as you say."
+
+Grim mounted his camel and rode to the top of a ridge of sand
+about twenty yards away, where he halted and sat motionless. If
+he really looked so much like Ali Higg, as seemed to be the case,
+no one at that distance could have doubted his identity. I hauled
+off two or three paces, so as not to betray the fact that I was
+to be Jael's executioner in a certain contingency, and the long
+sleeve of my cloak concealed the pistol.
+
+As I am setting down the facts exactly as they happened I may as
+well record here that I laughed. She thought I laughed at her in
+cold-blooded delight at the prospect of murder, and I think that
+tightened her resolution not to give me the least excuse.
+
+But I was not feeling in the least cold-blooded. I was laughing
+at myself, who might be forced to shoot a woman after all.
+
+Perhaps Grim gave the job to me because he knew I would not shoot
+her in any case. I don't know. Nor do I myself know now whether I
+would have shot her; sometimes I think yes, sometimes no. My
+guess is that I would have failed to do it, and that Narayan
+Singh, who was standing by and heard every word that passed,
+would have wiped my eye, as the saying is.
+
+Then Ibrahim ben Ah came striding into our midst like an old-time
+shepherd with a modern rifle in place of crook, looking neither
+to the right nor the left of him, but fixing his eyes on the man
+he thought was Ali Higg on the camel beyond us. He seemed
+surprised when Jael Higg stopped him, and told him to take all
+his men at once to that oasis, where he was to wait, if
+necessary, three days.
+
+"I was told to speak with the Lion himself," he objected. _"Ya
+sit Jael,_* there is wrath for those who disobey him!" [* O
+lady Jael.]
+
+"Go, taste his wrath then!" she retorted. "There was shooting
+because of a mistake in the darkness. Good camels were killed. He
+is more enraged than at the loss of twenty men. He would have it
+the blame is yours--"
+
+_"Mashallah!_ Mine!"
+
+"But I persuaded him. He cools his wrath in the moonlight,
+communing with Allah. Better go, Ibrahim, before his mood
+changes again."
+
+"But how came he to be here ahead of us? We left him in
+Petra.  How--"
+
+"How old beards love to wag! Fool! Go ask him then! I call these
+men to witness I have given the order that he told me to give to
+you. I wash my hands!"
+
+She began to make the gesture of washing hands, but thought
+better of it, for I might have mistaken that for a signal. Old
+Ibrahim ben Ah looked straight into her eyes, read resolution
+there, and bowed like a courtier to a queen. Then he turned on
+his heel, strode back to his camel, mounted, and returned to his
+men without another word to any one. Yet I dare bet that he had
+counted us, and knew we were all strangers, and dare say his
+thoughts would fill a good long chapter of a book.
+
+Grim continued to sit his camel motionless until the raiders
+under Ibrahim ben Ah had formed into four long lines and ridden
+away westward, towing enough baggage-animals behind them for a
+week or two's supplies.
+
+"One hundred and forty men," he announced when they were gone.
+"The Lion of Petra can't have many left."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+"I Think We've Got the Lion of Petra on the Hip!"
+
+
+
+Grim is one of those fellows who tell you their principles as
+grudgingly as they let out facts. He would make the poorest sort
+of propagandist or politician, for he doesn't advertise, and
+hates long arguments. What he knows he knows is so because it
+works; and he proceeds to put it to work.
+
+Nor is he much of a teacher. He takes people as he finds them and
+adapts his plans accordingly. So it is only from observation
+extended over a considerable period in all sorts of circumstances
+that I can say I believe his first and underlying principle is to
+look for the positive, concrete usefulness in any one with whom
+he is associated, whether friend or enemy. And this I have heard
+him say several times.
+
+"In secret service you limit yourself if you make plans. The game
+is to listen and watch. Presently the other fellow always tells
+his plans or else betrays them."
+
+And he is no such fool as to be caught in the act of listening,
+or to forewarn his enemy by seeming to wish to listen.
+
+He gave the order to march at once. Some of the men doubled up
+uncomfortably on the riding-camels, because of the three that had
+been killed, and the Bishareen fell to me.
+
+I ranged alongside Jael Higg, with Narayan Singh on the other
+side of her. At that we were off, Grim leading, well in advance,
+with Ali Baba and six men in attendance.
+
+The moon was a bit behind us by that time, so that I did not have
+much chance to observe Jael Higg narrowly until she turned her
+face to speak to me. But she was not long about doing that--say
+fifteen minutes--nine hundred seconds; suppressed curiosity can
+work up a pretty high pressure in that time.
+
+"Who is this man who looks like Ali Higg?" she asked me suddenly,
+and I had a good look at her face; you don't have to answer
+questions without thinking, just because they are asked by a
+woman in a friendly tone of voice.
+
+Her nose was Roman and very narrow, and her dark eyes looked
+straight at you without their pupils converging, which produced a
+sensation of being seen through. She had splendid teeth; and her
+mouth, which was humorous, turning upward at the corners when she
+smiled, had nevertheless a certain suggestion of stealthy
+strength--perhaps cruelty. Her chin was firm and practical. So
+were her freckled hands. I decided that the less I said the better.
+
+"He is a sheikh," said I pretty abruptly.
+
+She turned that empty information over in her mind for a minute,
+and decided to turn her guns on me. Conversation was not easy,
+for we were swinging along at a great pace, and my camel was a
+lot smaller than hers.
+
+"And you are an Indian? How is it that you speak English?"
+
+"Many of us speak it. We pass our college examinations in English."
+
+"How do you come to be with that--that sheikh?" she asked next.
+
+"It pleases me to follow him. _Inshallah,_ I may help him in case
+of sickness."
+
+"You are a _hakim?"_
+
+I admitted that, although secretly pitying any poor devil who
+might pin faith to the claim.
+
+"Ali Higg--the real one, who is known as the Lion of Petra--believes
+in Indian _hakims,_ like all these Arabs who have no use for
+European doctors. And this big man on my left, who is he?"
+
+"My servant."
+
+"An Afghan?"
+
+"A Pathan."
+
+She turned that over in her mind, too, for several minutes.
+
+"And how does Ayisha come to be with you?" she asked at last.
+
+At that Narayan Singh broke silence, and although he denied it
+afterward I know that his only motive was to get a little
+preliminary vengeance on Ayisha for the names she had called him.
+He maintains that he was "casting a stone, as it were, into a
+pond to see which way the ripples went."
+
+"Few women will refuse to follow a Pathan when honored by his
+admiration," he boomed.
+
+I could not see her face then, because she was staring at
+Narayan Singh.
+
+"Do you realize whose wife you are tampering with?" she
+asked him.
+
+"Hah! Where I come from a man must guard his women if he hopes to
+keep them."
+
+"Where you are going to, such a man as you will find his own life
+hard enough to keep," she retorted.
+
+_"Bismillah!_ I have kept it thus far," said Narayan Singh.
+
+She turned to me again.
+
+"What does the sheikh of yours call himself?"
+
+"Hajji Jimgrim bin Yazid of El-Abdeh."
+
+"Jimgrim. Jimgrim. Where have I heard that name?"
+
+"The stars have heard it," roared Narayan Singh loud enough for
+the stars to hear him boast. "He has taken the Lion of Petra's
+shape. He has taken his name. He has taken his wife. And now he
+will take his den. _Akbar,_ Jimgrim Ali Higg of Petra!"
+
+Mahommed the poet was riding two or three behind us in the line,
+and heard that. He took the cue and began his song. In a minute
+the whole line was roaring the refrain, and it broke like volleys
+on the night:
+
+   _"Akbar! Akbar! Jimgrirn Ali Higg!"_
+
+Jael Higg laughed. "He has a fool's luck and a lusty band of
+followers," she said. "It was only because Ayisha called out
+that he caught me. But a fool's luck is like a breath of wind
+that passes--"
+
+Suddenly she sat bolt upright and raised her right hand.
+
+"Oh, this night! This madness! Of all the dreams, of all the
+hallucinations, this is the wildest! I warned Ali Higg! I told
+him my foreboding, and he laughed!"
+
+She looked down at me again, and studied me for half a minute.
+
+"Tell me," she went on, "is that Sheikh Jimgrim of yours mad, or
+am I mad?"
+
+"If you ask my opinion, as a _hakim,"_ I answered, "you were
+mad to sit your camel alone, with only two men, within reach
+of our Jimgrim."
+
+"What does he think he will do with me at Petra?"
+
+"He thinks silently," said I.
+
+Whereat she too was silent for a few minutes, and then broke out
+into a new tirade of exclamations, but this time in a language of
+which I knew not one word--perhaps Russian, or Slovak, or
+Bulgarian. I think she was praying in a sort of wild way to
+long-neglected saints.
+
+She gave me the impression of being mentally almost unhinged by
+the sudden anticlimax of helplessness after over-confidence. Yet
+when she spoke again her voice was calm, and not without a ring
+of rather gallant humor.
+
+"I suppose he thinks he has stolen the queen bee, and so has the
+swarm in his power. But the swarm can sting, and will come for
+the queen bee."
+
+"So they bring their honey with them, who minds that?" Narayan
+Singh retorted.
+
+He was enjoying himself, acting the part of a bandit's follower
+with perfect gusto.
+
+"Oh, so it is honey you are after? And you two are Indians--a
+Pathan and--"
+
+"From Lahore," said I.
+
+"Five thousand pounds would buy your services?"
+
+"Five thousand promises would make us laugh," said the Sikh.
+
+"How much will your sheikh ever pay you? In an hour I will show
+you a _wady_ down which we three can escape. Agree to that and
+you shall have five thousand each the same hour that we
+reach Petra."
+
+_"Wallahi!_ Doubtless!" laughed Narayan Singh. "Five thousand
+bastinados each from Ali Higg, while the queen bee laughs at us
+for fools! Nay, lady Jael, you are Jimgrim's prisoner."
+
+"Jimgrim!" she said. "Somewhere I have heard that name."
+
+And she turned it over in her mind again like a taster trying
+wine, not speaking again for nearly an hour, until we drew
+abreast of a chaos of irregular great boulders that partly
+concealed the mouth of a gorge as dark and ugly as the throat
+of Tophet.
+
+"There is your chance!" she said. "Will you take it? You shall
+have employment with the Lion of Petra! Come!"
+
+But neither of us answered, and I kept a bright lookout for a
+pistol she still might have concealed on her; for she had not
+been searched--there was none who could do that with decency
+except Ayisha, who was not to be trusted.
+
+I knew Grim would not halt again before morning because the
+camels would not feed properly until after daylight, even if you
+put corn in front of them. We were likely in for a forced march
+on Petra, and he would not choose to halt twice if it could be
+helped. And I supposed that when we did halt he would look to
+Narayan Singh and me for information.
+
+Yet Mrs. Ali Higg number one was hardly a person you could expect
+to answer questions truthfully; and even until the stars began to
+grow pale in the east ahead of us I possessed my soul in patience.
+
+Then: "Is it money your Sheikh Jimgrim wants?" she asked at last.
+"Does he hold me to ransom? If so, I will give him a draft on
+the Bank of Egypt. I have Ali Higg's seal here, and I write
+all his letters."
+
+I did not answer, but Narayan Singh checked his camel a stride or
+two to make a signal to me behind her back.
+
+"Hah!" he remarked with an air of triumph. And I took that to
+mean that in his judgment Jimgrim could find use for Ali
+Higg's seal.
+
+But of course she heard him, and she took it to mean that she had
+guessed rightly. She turned to Narayan Singh; and because in that
+land, as an almost invariable rule, no business with a chief can
+be accomplished without bribing his minions, she worked off a
+little spite and offered largesse with the same hand.
+
+"Arrange good terms for me and you shall have Ayisha."
+
+"But I have her," said Narayan Singh with a great laugh.
+
+"Maybe. But you haven't settled yet with Ali Higg. Arrange good
+terms for my ransom, and I will see that Ali Higg wipes off
+Ayisha's score."
+
+"We shall see about that; we shall see," he answered.
+
+"Yes, yes! You go and see! Go to him now!"
+
+"When we halt," the Sikh answered.
+
+"In an hour it may be too late," she insisted. "If Ali Higg is
+prowling and should swoop down on you who would bargain then?"
+
+By that time it was light enough to see clearly at close range,
+and Narayan Singh caught my eye behind her back. I nodded. If
+there were any likelihood of Ali Higg being on the prowl why
+should she be in such a hurry to make terms?
+
+Right then Grim called a halt--none too soon for the camels--in a
+semicircular space protected by a low cliff that might have been
+a quarry-face two thousand years ago; what might have been a pit
+was all filled in by drifted sand. But he had his own mat spread
+on the top of the cliff, whence he could keep an eye on the
+surrounding country, and gave none of the prisoners a chance to
+talk to him.
+
+Nobody helped Jael Higg from her camel, for she jumped down like
+an acrobat and stood staring about her at Ali Baba's gang, and
+being stared at as they went about the business of off-loading
+the complaining beasts. I saw Ayisha get out of the _shibriyah,_
+face around slowly, and meet Jael's eyes.
+
+Neither woman spoke for a minute, or made any sign, but you could
+almost see the alternating current of scorn and hate that passed
+between them. Then Ayisha fell back on insolence and walked past
+Jael deliberately, with dark eyes flashing and a thin smile on
+her lips.
+
+"So you are now a Pathan's light o' love?" Jael sneered in Arabic.
+
+At that Ayisha turned again and faced her.
+
+"Who speaks? She whom the Lion could not trust to go to Hebron?
+_Um Kulsum!"_*
+
+------------
+* Um Kulsum was a lady in Arabic legend whose immoralities have
+made her name a byword.
+------------
+
+Ayisha passed on with a scornful shoulder movement. Narayan Singh
+grinned with malicious amusement. And I was just in time to catch
+two of the men again attacking my medicine-chest. Instead of
+trying to open it they were dragging it along the ground, and
+they were as pleased with themselves as two small dogs caught
+burying a boot.
+
+"She has given us money!"
+
+"Who has?"
+
+"The lady Ayisha. We are to bring her this, and she will take
+poison from it and put it in the other woman's food! So Jimgrim
+will be rid of her, and all will be well!"
+
+I got Narayan Singh to keep his eye on the chest, and walked up
+to where Grim was going through the form of Moslem prayer, facing
+Mecca on his mat on the low hilltop. That was for the benefit of
+the prisoners, no doubt.
+
+To save time I got down on my knees beside him and went through
+the same motions, keeping a bright lookout for interruptions and
+telling him in low tones all that had taken place, repeating
+conversations word for word as well as I could recall them.
+
+At last we both squatted, facing each other, and he lighted a
+cigarette; but it was several minutes yet before he answered.
+
+"Wants to make terms in a hurry, eh? And has the Lion's seal with
+her?" he said at last.
+
+"Well, as old Ali Baba keeps repeating, Allah makes all things
+easy! It's a little soon to talk yet, but I think we've got the
+Lion of Petra on the hip!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"There's No Room for the Two of You!"
+
+
+
+Of course, no committee in the world ever yet did more than cloud
+an issue with argument. It takes one man to lead the way through
+any set of circumstances, and the only wise course for a
+committee is to make that man's decision unanimous and back
+it loyally. But men have their rights, as Grim is always the
+first to admit.
+
+Ali Baba came and joined us on the cliff-top, and Narayan Singh
+was not long following suit. The Sikh said nothing, but Ali Baba
+was conscious of the weight that years should give to his
+opinion, as well as justly proud of his night's work, and not
+at all disposed to sit in silence.
+
+"Now the right course, Jimgrim, is to make a great circuit and
+carry these two women back across the British border," he began
+at once. "The Lion of Petra will then pay us all large sums of
+money, without which you will refuse to intercede with the
+government on his behalf for their return. Thus every one will be
+satisfied except the Lion, who will be too poor for a long time
+afterward to have much authority in these parts. Moreover, it
+will be told for a joke against him, and he will lose in
+prestige. I am an old man, who knows all about these matters."
+
+"What do you think, Narayan Singh?" Grim asked.
+
+"Sahib, what are we but a flying column? Swiftness and surprise
+are our two advantages. We should be like a javelin thrown from
+ambush that seeks out the enemy's heart. If we fail we are but a
+lost javelin--an officer, a sepoy, a civilian and a handful of
+thieves--there are plenty more! If we succeed there is a deed
+done well and cheaply! I never hunted lions, but I have seen a
+tiger trapped and beaten. Have we not good bait with us?"
+
+There followed a hot argument between Arab and Sikh, each
+accusing the other of ulterior motives as well as ignorance and
+cowardice; in fact, they acted like any other committee, growing
+less and less parliamentary as their views diverged. Ali Baba
+seemed to consider it relevant to call Narayan Singh a drunkard,
+and the Sikh considered it his duty in the circumstances to refer
+to Ali Baba's jail record. In the midst of all that effort to
+solve the problem at Petra, Grim asked me to go and invite Jael
+Higg to join us.
+
+In that hard, uncharitable desert daylight she did not impress me
+very favorably. The lines of her freckled face suggested too much
+ruthlessness, as though she was positively handsome in a certain
+way--as long as you observed the whole effect and did not study
+details--there was a look of cold experience about her brown eyes
+that chilled you. Of course, she was tired and that made a
+difference; but I did not find it easy to feel sympathetic, and I
+thought she was hardly the woman to win a jury's verdict on the
+strength of personal appeal.
+
+Nevertheless, with all the odds against her, she accomplished
+that morning what I had never done, or seen done, although many
+have attempted it and failed. She contrived to tear away Grim's
+mask and to expose the man's real feelings.
+
+He was always an enigma to me until that interview, at which they
+squatted facing each other on Grim's mat, with me beside Grim and
+the Sikh and Ali Baba glaring daggers at each other on either
+hand. The early sun seemed to edge everybody with a sort of aura,
+but it also showed every detail of a face and made it next to
+impossible to hide emotion.
+
+She opened the ball. I imagine she had been doing that most of
+her life.
+
+"Jimgrim," she said. "Jimgrim. Are you by any chance the American
+named James Grim, who fought with Lawrence in Allenby's campaign?"
+
+Grim astonished us all by admitting it at once. The name Jimgrim
+sounds enough like Arabic to pass muster; and we wondered why he
+should have gone to all that trouble to disguise himself, only to
+confess his real name when there seemed no need. Even Ali Baba
+left off cursing the Sikh under his breath.
+
+"I am glad to know that," she said. "It will save my wasting
+words. No man could ever get your reputation without being
+ruthless. I won't annoy you by pleading for mercy."
+
+And she looked at once as merciless as she expected him to be.
+
+"Now, Jael Higg," he answered, "let's talk sense."
+
+"You're a rare one, if you can!" she retorted.
+
+"Let's do our best," he said kindly.
+
+She looked very keenly at him for thirty seconds, and seemed to
+make up her mind that she had no chance against him.
+
+"Very well," she said. "I'll begin by being sensible. How much
+money do you want?"
+
+It is true that the more you analyze Grim's face the more he does
+impress you as a keen business man. But there are modifying
+symptoms. He did not appear to have heard the question.
+
+"I want you to be straightforward and tell me all you know of Ali
+Higg's circumstances."
+
+"Yes. I'd expect you to want that. As an American hired by the
+British to help them exploit this country, that's what you would
+ask. After you know all about him you can fix the ransom. That
+right? Well, I won't tell."
+
+"I hoped we were going to talk sense," he answered quietly.
+
+"How can any one talk sense with a man like you? What are you
+doing in this country? `Horning in' is what they'd call it in
+America. You've got no business here. It's different in my case.
+I'm married to Ali Higg. I've thrown in my lot with these people.
+I've a right to help them to independence. But what right have
+you got to interfere? Bah! Name your price. I'll pay if I can."
+
+"Well, Jael," he answered with a rather whimsical smile. "I'll
+try to disillusion you to begin with. Perhaps if you understand
+me better you'll be reasonable.
+
+"All I know is Arabic and Arabs. I've no other gifts, and I like
+to be some use in the world. I'm real fond of Arabs. It 'ud
+tickle me to see them make good. But I can see as far through a
+stone wall as any blind horse can, and I know--better maybe than
+you do, Jael--that all they'll get by cutting loose and playing
+pirates is the worst end of it. I hate to see them lose out, so I
+use what gifts I've got in their behalf."
+
+"Do you call it helping us to come out against Ali Higg and
+kidnap his wives?" she retorted. "Ali Higg is a patriot. He's
+against all foreign control of Arab country, and he's man enough
+to fight.
+
+"These British and French and Italians promised us an independent
+Arab country. Where is it? Have you seen any of it? No. And
+you're helping the British break their promise!
+
+"Ali Higg is doing his best to redeem what Arabs fought for in
+the war, and I'm his wife. You ask me to betray him? Never!"
+
+"Ali Higg is doing his worst, not his best, Jael."
+
+"He is creating unity among these tribes," she retorted.
+
+"He is practically forcing the British to come out and smash
+him," said Grim. "Now, see here, Jael, I don't want him smashed.
+I don't hold with his method, but that's the Arab's business; if
+being crucified and shot for differences of opinion suits them,
+why, no doubt Ali Higg's the right man for them. They tell me he
+delivers the goods. But he can't go starting a new war out here,
+not while I've any say he can't."
+
+"Who are you that should say or not say?" she demanded.
+
+"Same as Ali Higg, Jael; I'm a human. He's from Arabia, you're
+from the Balkans, I'm from the U.S. We're all three foreigners,
+aren't we?"
+
+"Yes. But he and I are foreigners who will drive the British out--"
+
+"And let French or Italians in."
+
+"Ali Higg is a fighter, I tell you! He's an Arab, and he knows
+how to control Arabs just as the Prophet Mohammed did. He has
+only begun in a small way, but--"
+
+"But he'll wind up like a small-town sport in the lock-up, the
+way he's going," said Grim. "Now, see here, Jael, I'm just as set
+on doing my bit in the world as Ali Higg is. Maybe I'm a mite
+more tolerant, but there isn't a man or woman living who can
+shift me off a course once I'm set on it.
+
+"Ali Higg considers the Arabs need a holy war. I'm hell bent for
+peace. I'm going to stop him. I'm not arguing that point, for it
+won't bear arguing, and I'm not trying to convert you. But you're
+in my power, and though I sure would hate to inconvenience a
+lady, I'm that plumb remorseless I'd separate you from Ali Higg
+for ever unless you helped me call him off the warpath."
+
+"Help you!" she exclaimed with horror.
+
+"Sure. You've got to! There's no law this side of the border,
+Jael, that can make me hand you over to authority. There's no
+mandate out here yet. There never will be one if I can prevent
+it. I'm here to keep a foreign army from trespassing across the
+Jordan, it being my crazy notion that Arabs can evolve their own
+government, if let. You've got to help me keep that foreign army
+out, or take the consequences."
+
+She laughed at last. It was rather a hard laugh without much
+mirth in it.
+
+"Your words are a liar's, but your voice rings true," she said.
+"I think you're only another of these diplomatists."
+
+"I'm that diplomatic I'm chancing my hide to save other peoples,"
+he answered. "Let's be quite frank, Jael. I'm in danger out here.
+All I've got with me besides two respectable men are thieves from
+El-Kalil. That little army of Ali Higg's lies between me and the
+border, and I'm no kind of a darn-fool optimist when it comes to
+figuring on Ali Higg's hospitality in Petra. Nor am I kidding
+myself I can persuade His Dibs by a theological argument or any
+cheap advice.
+
+"But I've reasoned it out this way--if Ali Higg sends Ayisha to
+El-Kalil rather than trust you to do your shopping, that's
+because he sets a value on you. Since he sends you out in charge
+of a raid on El-Maan I guess he sets a high value on you. That's
+as good as saying you've got influence. Believe me, Jael,
+you'll use that influence to suit my plans or we're not going
+to be friends!"
+
+"Friends?" she said, and stared at him.
+
+"Sure. Why not? Look at the men I've got with me; they're all my
+friends. I'm right proud to say it. I might have hanged most of
+them once, but I never knew it do much good to a man to hang him;
+so we get acquainted, and one way and another we contrive to keep
+on good terms.
+
+"See my point? Nobody'd hang you if I scooted back over the
+border with you, Jael. There isn't a law that would cover your
+case. But they'd deport you, and you'd be an outcast with tabs
+kept on you, and I've seen your sort come to a bad end. I never
+liked to see it. I never saw anybody gain by it. I'd sooner see
+you winning every one's respect by sticking to Ali Higg and
+schooling him to play safe."
+
+Her pale face actually blushed under the freckles. She had not
+lived in America for nothing. As the wife of a polygamist she
+knew exactly what he meant about winning respect. Her sort enjoys
+to be patronized by reformers and social uplifters about as much
+as an eagle likes a cage.
+
+"You talk well," she said, "but you must be a fool at bottom, or
+you wouldn't suggest friendship with me. Can you imagine me not
+pushing you into Ali Higg's clutches at the first chance?"
+
+"Sure I can, or I wouldn't waste time talking. You've got more
+sense than that, Jael. You might trick me. It has been done. Ali
+Higg might scupper me and the crowd--he mighty likely would. But
+that 'ud be the end of Ali Higg's prospects, for as sure as my
+name's Grim the British would smash him to avenge me, and you
+know it! If they didn't get you they'd get him, and you'd become
+the property of the first petty chief who could lay his hands on
+you. So let's talk like two sensible people."
+
+"You'll find me sensible," she answered. "I shall just do
+nothing--tell you nothing."
+
+"You've told too much already to be able to stop now, Jael," he
+answered, smiling. "I'm sure you won't put me to the necessity of
+searching you; you've too much pride for that. So suppose you
+pass me Ali Higg's seal--the one you sign all his letters with.
+No, don't try to hide it in the sand; put it here."
+
+He held his hand out, and she bit her lip in mortification. It
+was too bad that she had made that slip of boasting to Narayan
+Singh and me about the seal, but there was nothing else for it
+now and she gave it to him--a gold thing as big as a silver
+half-dollar, marvelously engraved.
+
+"That settles the financial end of it," said Grim. "We can
+impound all that money in the Bank of Egypt--although I'm free to
+admit I wouldn't take such a seal away from a friend of mine."
+
+"Give it back, then," she answered with a bitter little laugh. "I
+see I'll have to be your friend."
+
+He smiled--wonderfully gently. There wasn't the least offense in
+it, although there wasn't any credulity either.
+
+"I always aim to prove myself a man's friend--or a woman's," he
+said, "before expecting to be trusted out of sight. I dare say
+that's your code too?"
+
+"If ever Ali Higg catches you with that seal--"
+
+"He won't catch me, Jael; he won't catch me. But you shall have
+it back, and the money shan't be touched, if you play straight."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders petulantly, admitting defeat but
+resenting it. There came a time, months later, when she understood
+Grim's peculiar altruism and respected it, but she was a long
+way just then from admiring him.
+
+"You force me," she said. "Name your terms."
+
+"Well, then, suppose we speak of Ali Higg to begin with. Is his
+temper uneven? Is there any way to catch him in a specially
+good humor?"
+
+"He's the most even-tempered man I know," she laughed. "He's
+always in a rage."
+
+"So much the easier for us," Grim answered. "That kind always
+make mistakes. He must have counted on your brains exclusively to
+keep him on top; and now your brains are in my pocket, so to
+speak. How's his health? Boils? Indigestion?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Ah! Most angry men have indigestion. Dislikes European doctors,
+I dare say? Thought so; most fanatical Moslems do that. But an
+Indian _hakim?_ Now, many an Indian _hakim_ knows how to relieve
+indigestion--in between the bouts of rage. D'you suppose he'd
+entertain a _hakim?"_
+
+She nodded again.
+
+"Well, we'll fix it so a _hakim_ can relieve his boils and
+indigestion. But let you and me understand each other first,
+Jael. I can be a mean man when I must, but I'll always take a
+heap of trouble to find a white man's way of accomplishing the
+same purpose. I can act mean toward you--sheer plug-ugly if you
+force my hand--but I'd sooner not; and I'd just as lief help
+you as hinder you, provided you don't upset what I'm seeking
+to build."
+
+She laughed again, and not so bitterly.
+
+"You're on the wrong side of the wall to build much," she
+answered. "You should come over into our camp. You're so like Ali
+Higg in certain lights and in some of your gestures, and so
+unlike him in other things, that if you came across the Jordan
+for good I think you could show us something."
+
+Her eyes said far more than her lips did. She was studying him
+from a new angle--a thoughtful, speculative angle that vaguely
+excited her.
+
+"What I mean is just this," he said; "that you and I had better
+decide to be real friends, and not half-open enemies, each
+looking for a chance to spoil the other's game. There are men in
+this camp who'll tell you that I keep my word. I'm willing to
+pledge it not to hurt you or Ali Higg, provided you pledge yours
+to be equally friendly and to help me in taming Ali Higg so's
+he'll be useful and not just an ordinary trouble-maker."
+
+"Would you accept my word?" she asked him--ready to consider him
+fool or liar, according to how he answered.
+
+"I'll accept it, Jael. Sure. For you'll have to give it, and it's
+all you've got to trade with. And I'll watch you just about
+twice as carefully as examiners watch the bank directors of
+New York State.
+
+"Knowing you're watched, like them you're going to be too proud
+to cheat; and after you've found how it pays to play straight
+with me you're going almost to enjoy being watched for the sake
+of the advertisement."
+
+Her face did not soften in the least; but it changed expression,
+like a woman buyer's who has decided to make a purchase but has
+not done bargaining.
+
+"I think I'm going to like you," she said. "Of course, you're a
+liar, like all men, but you've a finer touch than most."
+
+At that point Ali Baba made his first contribution to the
+argument. The old man did not know much English, but there are
+certain words--such as liar, cheat, swine, thief, and the list of
+oaths--that find their way like water to the common level and are
+known from Spitzbergen to the Horn.
+
+"He is no liar!" he exclaimed in Arabic. "A cunning man with the
+brain of three, who can use the truth for his own ends! A keeper
+of secrets! An upsetter of plans! But he is no liar, and I will
+not hear him called one by a woman! Peace, thou fool! It is
+written that a woman's tongue is worse than water dripping
+through a roof!"
+
+It is manners in that country to sit silent while an old man
+speaks, and even Jael Higg did not offer to rebuke him for the
+interruption. When he had quite finished Grim took up the
+argument again.
+
+"Now let's know where we stand. Are you and I to be friends, Jael?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I'm no half-way adventurer. I'll make your fortune," she said,
+"if you'll come the whole way with me, and stay this side
+of Jordan."
+
+He shook his head and smiled back at her.
+
+"You've your work cut out to keep Ali Higg off the rocks, Jael."
+
+"There's no room for two of you," she answered darkly.
+
+"I guess not."
+
+She looked hard at me, and back from me to Grim. I don't know
+yet whether she was setting a trap for us or really in earnest
+about what she said next. Grim thinks she was drawing a bow
+at a venture.
+
+"Is this the _hakim?_ One of the two respectable persons you have
+with you? Hm! Respectability is a mask--often a safe mask, often
+an offensive one, always a lie. All really dangerous criminals
+are respectable people.
+
+"And a _hakim,_ eh? An Indian physician? I have heard of Indian
+physicians being poisoners--although, of course, they're
+respectable people and give the poison by mistake! Now if he
+should go to Ali Higg and poison him, while pretending to cure
+boils and indigestion--"
+
+"But he won't," said Grim, "so why suppose?"
+
+"Of course he won't, unless you tell him to!" she snapped.
+
+"I dare say he's as much in your power as I am. But suppose you
+tell him to--"
+
+"I won't, Jael."
+
+"Now don't you be a fool, James Grim! You can't deceive me into
+thinking you're above such things. That haughty attitude is
+British, not American; you've been defiled by contact with
+them.  Come out into the open like an unhypocritical American.
+Talk business.
+
+"I've tried to make a man of Ali Higg, but he's only an animal
+after all. The best I can ever do with him will be failure
+compared to what I could make of you, James Grim. You look enough
+like him to make it possible to substitute you with care. Go
+ahead and send your _hakim."_
+
+Grim smiled with perfect good humor, but a blind man could not
+have mistaken his refusal.
+
+"Oh, you're all hypocrites, you men--Americans, English,
+French--you're all alike; glad to see a man die, if he's a
+nuisance, but afraid to admit you'd a hand in it. But you needn't
+fear. You can send your _hakim_ uninstructed. He's an Indian,
+isn't he? Well, Ali Higg is sure to insult him to the very marrow
+of his bones, and you can safely leave Indian revengefulness to
+do the rest."
+
+Grim shook his head.
+
+"He'd be too afraid he might meet me some day. He knows I'd not
+stand for it. No, Jael; I invited you to talk sense. You've got
+to make shift with Ali Higg `as is'. If you don't like it say so
+now and I'll tell off three or four of my thieves to escort you
+over the border into British territory while I play this game
+without you.
+
+"What you've got to understand first and last is that I'm dead
+set on clipping Ali Higg's claws. I don't care a row of imitation
+pewter shucks about any man's ambition, or any woman's past. My
+job in the world is to do what I'm able to do, and I'm going to
+prevent war in this land if I get killed doing it and have to
+ruin you in the bargain! Now, are we set?"
+
+"I think you're a fool," she said, "and you think me a villain.
+We're strange partners! Very well, let's try."
+
+Promptly he handed her an envelop, sheet of paper, and his
+fountain-pen.
+
+"Write first, then, to Ibrahim ben Ah. He knows your hand, I
+suppose? Tell him there is news of a British force coming over
+the border, and that he must stay at that oasis in readiness to
+attack after Ali Higg has taken steps to draw the British in the
+right direction.
+
+"Say he may have to stay there a week or ten days, and that
+he is to enforce the death penalty on any of his men who dares
+try to leave the oasis. Tell him that secrecy as to his present
+whereabouts is the all-important point. For that reason strangers
+may be made prisoner and held until further orders. The messenger
+who bears this is to be sent back with an answer immediately."
+
+"How much of that is true about a British force?" she demanded.
+"Are you trying to trap those men?"
+
+"None of it's true. No, they're safe. You write, and I'll sign it
+with your seal."
+
+She hesitated, but I don't know whether from caution or from a
+genuine dislike to deceive her husband's loyal henchman. But
+there was no way of getting out of it except by blunt refusal,
+involving the threatened escort into British territory and
+deportation. So she wrote, and Grim sealed the letter: He handed
+it to Ali Baba.
+
+"Select the most trustworthy of your sons, O King of Thieves,
+give him the fastest camel, and let him ride with that to the
+oasis. Bid him ride hard and overtake us with the answer."
+
+"Do you think my sons have wings?" asked Ali Baba.
+
+"Not unless devils are winged!" laughed Grim. "It is a simple
+matter--just there and back again."
+
+"Not so simple, Jimgrim! It is written that in the desert all men
+are enemies. What if he should meet a dozen men?"
+
+"The letter will be his pass. He must take a chance returning."
+
+_"Wallahi!_ A letter? A pass into Jehannum possibly! By Allah,
+Jimgrim, a man needs more than a letter in these parts. He needs
+brains--age--influence--experience. Nay! If any is to take that
+letter, let me do it. I am old, and they hesitate to kill an old
+man. I am wise in the desert ways, not rash. And if they do kill
+me, then it is only an old man's body bloating in the sun.
+
+"Besides, I am cunning and can give wise answers, whereas those
+sons of mine might take offense at an insult, or recognize a
+blood enemy at the wrong moment. Nay, it is I who must take
+that letter."
+
+Grim clapped him on the back.
+
+"Good, my father; you shall go. Take one son with you to look
+after your comforts."
+
+He turned that suggestion over in his mind for several minutes,
+but shook his head finally.
+
+"I go alone. They would ask me why two men bring one letter.
+Moreover, they might send the one back with an answer, retaining
+the other as hostage; for it is the way of the devil to put
+suspicion in men's minds. Two men would double their doubt, just
+as two stones weigh the twice of one. And I will not take the
+best camel, but the worst one."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Write me a second letter. Have the woman write it, and you affix
+the seal. Give order that they are to provide a swift, fresh
+camel in exchange for my weary beast. I shall make a great fuss
+about the beast they provide, rejecting this and that one, thus
+causing them to believe in me, since men without proper authority
+do not act thus, but are content with anything so be they can
+only escape unharmed."
+
+So the second letter was written; and in the rising, scorching
+heat old Ali Baba set off, mounted on the meanest of the baggage
+beasts, whose hump was getting galled, so that he wasn't likely
+to be of much use to us within a day or so.
+
+Then we all got under the shelter of the low tents to give the
+other camels a rest and wait for evening, and I think Jael Higg
+slept, but I don't know, for we gave her a tent to herself; she
+refused point blank to share one with Ayisha.
+
+And Ayisha, I know, did not sleep. She came in the noon glare to
+the tent I occupied with Narayan Singh and entered without
+ceremony, slipping through the low opening with the silent ease
+that comes naturally to the Badawi. She squatted down in front of
+us, and I awoke the Sikh, who was snoring a chorus from Wagner's
+"Niebelungen Ring."
+
+For a moment I thought he was going to resume the night's
+flirtation, but there was something in the quiet manner of her
+and the serious expression of her face that he recognized as
+quickly as I did. All her imperious attitude was gone. She did
+not look exactly pleading, nor yet cunning; perhaps it was a
+blend of both that gave her the soft charm she had come
+deliberately armed with.
+
+Of this one thing I am absolutely sure; whatever that young woman
+did was calculated and deliberate; and the more she seemed to act
+on impulse the more she had really studied out her move.
+
+Narayan Singh checked a word half-way, and we waited for her to
+speak first. Her eyes sought mine, and then the medicine-chest.
+Then she looked back at me, and I made a gesture inviting her
+to speak.
+
+"You told me," she said at last, "that you have poison in that
+box that would reach down to hell and slay the ifrits. Give me
+some of it."
+
+_"Ya sit Ayisha._ I need it all for the ifrits," I answered.
+
+"I will make no trouble for you," she said; and for a moment I
+suspected she meant to kill herself.
+
+"You are young and beautiful," I told her. "The world holds
+plenty of good for you yet."
+
+At that she flashed her white teeth and her eyes blazed.
+
+"Truly! Allah puts a good omen into your mouth, _miyan!_* Yet
+little comes to the woman who neglects to plan for it. Give me
+the poison. I will pay."
+
+-------------
+* _Miyan:_ the rather contemptuous form of address that Arabs use
+toward Indian Moslems.
+-------------
+
+I was about to refuse abruptly, being rather old-maidish about
+some things and not always ready with a smile for what I don't
+approve; but Narayan Singh interrupted in time to prevent the
+unforgivable offense of preaching my own code of morals uninvited.
+
+"Tell us who is to be poisoned," he demanded.
+
+"That is none of your business," she answered calmly.
+
+"But the poison is our business," said the Sikh. "We make terms.
+If the person to be poisoned is an enemy of ours, well and good;
+you shall have it and we shall be gainers. But Allah forbid that
+we should hasten the death of a friend! Is it for Jael Higg?"
+
+"No, for I see that to poison her would be to incur the enmity of
+Jimgrim. Already he takes counsel with her; did he and she not
+lay their heads together in your presence after morning prayers?"
+
+"For whom, then? For Jimgrim?"
+
+"God forbid! Shall I woo a dead man? Nay! You say you will give
+me the poison if I tell? You swear it? Then it is for the Lion of
+Petra. Thus I shall win the love of Jimgrim. And Jael, being
+without a man, will run away to Egypt, where her money is."
+
+_"Bismillah!"_ swore the Sikh. "I see no reason why I should not
+get an angry husband out of the way so simply! But remember,
+Ayisha, you must slay me in turn if you hope to have Jimgrim for
+husband. By my beard and the Prophet's feet* it is I who will
+have you to wife, if I have to burn kingdoms first!"
+
+----------
+* A scandalous piece of blasphemy
+----------
+
+"Give me the poison first, and we shall see," she laughed.
+
+"Very well; leave us for a while, Ayisha. I will persuade this
+master of mine, who has a vein of caution, since he lacks the
+zeal of love. I will bring you the stuff when he and I have
+talked it over."
+
+"Strong, strong stuff," she insisted. "Stuff that would eat iron.
+Ali Higg's belly is tough."
+
+"It shall come out through his flesh like flame," the Sikh promised.
+
+As soon as she had gone, and he had watched her out of earshot,
+he turned to me with a gruff laugh.
+
+"Now, sahib, make her up a potion of some harmless powder for me
+to carry to her tent while you go and tell our Jimgrim what has
+passed. Give her physic that will purge the Lion of Petra without
+doing worse than make his belly burn. Stay; give croton in a
+bottle; that is best."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"That We Make a Profit from this Venture!"
+
+
+
+Late that afternoon, before they loaded up the camels, there was
+another conference between Grim, Jael Higg, Narayan Singh, our
+prisoner Yussuf, and myself. The ancient hills of Edom were not
+far away, and we were near enough to Petra to feel nervous. Jael
+made a pretty good pretense of meeting Grim half-way, and I think
+she had made up her mind to let him dig his own pit and tumble
+into it.
+
+Yussuf was aware by that time, if not of Grim's identity, at any
+rate of the fact that he was an officer in the British pay, and
+was rather obviously considering which would likely pay him
+best--to side secretly with Ali Higg or openly with Grim, or both.
+
+Having fought over all that country under Lawrence, and knowing
+consequently every yard of it, I suppose Grim felt neither
+thrilled nor mystified; but in case any scientist reads this and
+wants to know how I felt, "fed up and far from home" about
+describes it. But there was worse to come!
+
+Grim turned to me at last and smiled in that darned genial
+way he has when he means to call on your uttermost patience
+or endurance.
+
+"You see, the difficulty is," he said, "to get to Ali Higg
+without his getting us first. He has probably got between forty
+and fifty men in Petra with him, so we daren't invade the place.
+Yet we've got to hurry, because old Ibrahim ben Ah with that army
+may get suspicious and send back a messenger on his own account.
+Now, do you feel willing to beard the Lion in his den?"
+
+"Alone?" I asked.
+
+I never felt less willing to do anything, and dare say my face
+betrayed it.
+
+"No. Narayan Singh will go too, and, of course, Ayisha."
+
+Ayisha seemed about as safe an ambassador to send as an electric
+spark to a barrel of powder. I glanced at Narayan Singh and felt
+ashamed, for his eyes glowed unmistakably. He was enthusiastic.
+
+Well, it seems I draw a color-line after all. I can't fight like
+a Sikh, or be as good a man in lots of ways; but I'm not going to
+be outdone by one in daring, while the Sikh is looking.
+
+"All right," I said, "I'll do anything you say."
+
+But I did not have the perfect voice-control I would have liked,
+and Jael Higg grinned. That naturally settled it.
+
+"Narayan Singh needn't come if he'd rather stay with you," I
+added, and the Sikh raised his eyebrows.
+
+"Do you dare to make love to Ayisha, sahib?" he grinned.
+
+I began to see the general drift of the plan of campaign, and
+wondered. Having seen more than a little of the Near East, and
+knowing how the peace of the whole world depends on preserving
+that unmelted hotpot of nations from anarchy, I was not impressed
+by the stability of things in general!
+
+Grim had come out on his hair-raising venture because no army was
+available to deal with Ali Higg, and he would not have ventured
+unless powers-that-pretend-to-be were sure that Ali Higg was
+deadly dangerous. Did the peace of the world, then, depend on the
+success or otherwise of a Sikh's mock love-making. It did look
+like it.
+
+Narayan Singh got to his feet with a laugh and a yawn, and went
+to dance attendance on Ayisha, while Grim reinstructed Yussuf
+regarding the ease with which the British could impound his Jaffa
+property; but though I listened to all that, and heard Yussuf's
+vows of fidelity--heard him promise to reverse his former report
+and spread rumors in Ali's camp of a British army getting ready
+to advance--the prospect to me looked gloomier and gloomier.
+
+"You can only die once," Grim laughed after a quick glance at my
+face, "and we may save a hundred thousand people from the sword."
+
+But I suppose I wasn't cut out to be a willing martyr. It was a
+case of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and though
+I did go forward on that mad escapade it was fear that drove
+me--fear of the Sikh's and Grim's contempt, and of my own
+self-loathing afterward.
+
+Grim and Narayan Singh are made of the real hero stuff. I wonder
+how many others there are like me, who face the music simply
+because one or two others have got guts enough to lead us
+up to it.
+
+We didn't move far that night, for there was no need, and Grim
+was careful not to go where Ali Baba could not find him. We
+passed through acres of oleander-scrub into a valley twelve miles
+wide at its mouth, that narrowed gradually until the high red
+sandstone cliffs shut out the moonlight. It was like the mouth of
+hell, and suffocating, for the cliff-sides were giving off the
+heat they had sucked up through the day.
+
+The surest sign that Ali Higg was either over-confident or
+seriously engaged elsewhere was that there was no guard in the
+ravine. Ten men properly placed could have destroyed us. Even the
+great Alexander of Macedon could not force that gorge, and
+suffered one of his worst defeats there. The Turks made the same
+mistake and tried to oust Lawrence in the Great War; but he
+simply overwhelmed them with a scratch brigade of partly armed
+Bedouins and women.
+
+Grim called a halt at last where a dozen caves a hundred feet
+above the bottom of the gorge could be reached by a goat-track
+leading to a ledge. There was a rift in the side-wall there,
+making a pitch-dark corner where the camels could lie unseen and
+grumble to one another--safe enough until daylight, unless they
+should see ghosts and try to stampede for the open. Grim sent the
+women and Ayisha's four men up to the caves with only Narayan
+Singh to watch them, for there was no way of escape, except by
+that twelve-inch goat-track.
+
+Then, because Ali Baba's sons and grandsons were nervous about
+the "old man their father," and because the one thing that more
+than all other circumstances combined could ruin our slim chance
+would be panic, Grim squatted on the sand in the gorge with the
+men all around him and began to tell stories.
+
+Right there in the very jaws of death, within a mile of the lair
+of Ali Higg, in possession of two of the tyrant's wives, with an
+army at our rear that might at that minute be following old Ali
+Baba into the gorge to cut off our one possible retreat, he told
+them the old tales that Arabs love, and soothed them as if they
+were children.
+
+That was the finest glimpse of Grim's real manhood I had
+experienced yet, although I could not see him for the darkness.
+You couldn't see any one. It was a voice in the night--strong,
+reassuring--telling to born thieves stories of the warm humanity
+of other thieves, whose accomplishments in the way of cool cheek
+and lawless altruism were hardly more outrageous than the task in
+front of us.
+
+And he told them so well that even when a chill draft crept along
+the bottom of the gorge two hours before dawn, taking the place
+of the hot air that had ascended, and you could feel the shiver
+that shook the circle of listeners, they only drew closer and
+leaned forward more intently--almost as if he were a fire at
+which they warmed themselves.
+
+But heavens! It seemed madness, nevertheless. We had no more
+pickets out than the enemy had. We were relying utterly on Grim's
+information that he had extracted from the women and the
+prisoners, and on his judgment based on that.
+
+No doubt he knew a lot that he had not told us, for that is his
+infernal way of doing business; but neither that probability, nor
+his tales that so suited the Arab mind, nor the recollection of
+earlier predicaments in which his flair for solutions had been
+infallibly right, soothed my nerves much; and I nearly jumped out
+of my skin when a series of grunts and stumbling footfalls broke
+the stillness of the gorge behind us.
+
+It sounded like ten weary camels being cursed by ten angry men,
+and I supposed at once that Ibrahim ben Ah had sent a detachment
+to investigate and that this was their advance-guard. Who else
+would dare to lift his voice in that way in the gorge? You could
+hear the words presently:
+
+"Ill-bred Somali beast! Born among vermin in a black man's kraal!
+Allah give thee to the crows! Weary? What of it? What of my back,
+thou awkward earthquake! Thou plow-beast! A devil sit on thee! A
+devil drive thee! A devil eat thee!"
+
+_Whack! Whack!_
+
+"Oh my bones! My old bones!"
+
+Mujrim was the first to recognize the voice. He got up quietly
+and stood in the gorge; and in another minute a blot of denser
+blackness that was a camel loomed above him, and he raised his
+hand to seize the head-rope. But the camel saw him first, and,
+realizing that the journey was over at last, flung itself to the
+ground with the abandon of a foundered dog, and lay with its neck
+stretched out straight and legs all straddled anyhow. Mujrim was
+just in time to catch his father, who was nearly as tired as the
+camel. It was pretty obvious at once that Jael's authority had
+failed badly when it came to exchanging camels.
+
+The sons all surrounded the old man and made a fuss over him,
+laying him down on a sheepskin coat and chafing his stiff
+muscles, calling him brave names, rubbing his feet, patting his
+hands, praising him, while he swore at them each time they
+touched a sore spot.
+
+They would not even give him a chance to hand over his letter
+to Grim, until at last he swore so savagely that Mujrim paid
+attention and took the letter out of the old man's waistcloth. It
+was in the same envelop in which the other had gone, unsealed,
+but with the thumb-mark of Ibrahim ben Ah imprinted on its face.
+
+"To think that I, of all people, should fetch and carry for such
+dogs!" swore Ali Baba. "I asked for a good beast in exchange for
+mine, and they gave me this crow's meat, and laughed! May Allah
+change their faces! May the water of that oasis turn their bowels
+into stone!
+
+"Aye, Jimgrim, they will stay there! They are glad enough to stay
+there. They are dogs that fear their master's whip. They are so
+afraid of him that I think if Ali Higg should bid them roast
+themselves alive the dogs would do it. May they roast a second
+time in hell for giving me that camel.
+
+"Bah! What kind of sons have I? Are these the sons of my loins
+that let me parch? Is there no water-bag?"
+
+Grim struck a match in the dark corner where the camels were; but
+all the envelop contained was a piece of jagged paper torn from
+the original letter, with Ibrahim ben Ah's thumb-mark done
+in ink made from gunpowder by way of acknowledgment. It meant,
+presumably, that instructions would be obeyed, and so far, good;
+we were not now in danger of trouble from that source.
+
+But Ali Baba found his tongue again, and freed himself from his
+sons after he had drank about a quart of water.
+
+"That Ibrahim ben Ah was puzzled," he said. "Allah! But the fool
+asked questions; and by the Prophet's beard I lied in answer to
+him! Ho! What a string of lies! Who was I but a sheikh from
+El-Kalil bringing word to Ali Higg of the movements of a British
+force! In what way did I become the friend of Ali Higg? Was I not
+always his friend! Was it not I who fed him when he first escaped
+from Egypt! Ho-ho-ho! Have I not been working for a year to
+gather men for him in El-Kalil! Have I not made purchases in
+El-Kalil and El-Kudz for his wife Ayisha! _Il hamdulillah!_ My
+tongue was ready! May the lies rot the belly of the fool
+who ate them!
+
+"But that was not all. He wanted to know other things--as, for
+instance, whether the other force of forty men is still at large,
+and if so who shall protect the women in Petra.
+
+"'For,' quoth he, `by Allah, there are men in the neighborhood
+who have felt our Ali's heel, and who would not scruple to wreak
+vengeance if his back were altogether turned. Convey him my
+respectful homage, and bid him look to his rear,' said Ibrahim
+ben Ah."
+
+At that Grim called to Narayan Singh, who came down the
+goat-track like a landslide. You mustn't whistle your man in
+those parts, or the Arabs will say the devil has defiled
+your mouth.
+
+"Ask Jael Higg to come here."
+
+"A word first, Jimgrim sahib! While I watched, those women
+talked. Jael, the older one, offered Ayisha forgiveness if she
+would obey henceforth; but Ayisha gave her only hard words,
+saying that in a day or so it will be seen whose cock crows
+loudest. So Jael called to two of the men who have been with
+Ayisha all this time, and they squatted in the mouth of her cave.
+As it was very dark I crept quite close and listened. She bade
+them watch their chance and run to Ali Higg.
+
+"'If he is ill and angry, never mind,' she said. `If he beats
+you, never mind. He will reward you afterward. Bid him, as he
+values life,' she said, `call in those forty men whom he would
+send to punish the Beni Aroun people. Tell him I am a prisoner,
+but those forty are enough to turn the tables until Ibrahim ben
+Ah can come. A camel must leave in a hurry for Ibrahim ben Ah at
+the oasis, and bring him and all the men back to straighten
+this affair.'
+
+"She promised them money and promotion for success, and sure
+death for failure!"
+
+"Good!" said Grim, turning to me. "You see? It always pays to
+stage a close-up in a game like this. We've caught our friend Ali
+Higg between soup and fish."
+
+"Get in quick, then, and kidnap him," I urged.
+
+"Man alive," he answered, "we've no kind of right to do that.
+Bring her down," he told Narayan Singh, "and then have Mujrim tie
+those four men of Ayisha's so they've no chance to escape."
+
+Jael Higg came down in a livid passion--altogether too near home
+to enjoy taking secondhand orders from an Indian in the dark. She
+was still less amused when she discovered that Grim knew her
+little scheme.
+
+"Well, Jael," he said, "you weren't quite frank with me after
+all, were you? Which will you do now--stay in that hole up
+there with a double guard, or come into Petra with us and
+behave yourself?"
+
+For, I should say, a whole minute, she did not answer. You could
+not tell in the dark, but I think she was fighting back tears,
+and too proud to betray it.
+
+"I'm your prisoner," she hissed at last. "Do what you like, and
+take the consequences."
+
+"I'll put you to no indignity, Jael, if you'll play fair."
+
+"My God! What? Are you mad, or am I? What are you going to do
+with Ali Higg?"
+
+"Make friends with him."
+
+"You swear that?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+She was silent for another minute.
+
+"Very well," she said at last. "I'll do my best."
+
+"Accepted," answered Grim. "Now--bring down Ayisha--fetch out the
+camels--mount--and forward all!"
+
+We went forward just as dawn was breaking, and I believe every
+man Jack of us except Grim had his heart in his teeth. Grim was
+likely too busy conning over the plan in his head to feel afraid,
+that being, as far as I could ever tell, the one lone advantage
+of being leader, just as the capacity to drive out fear by
+steady thinking is as good a reason as exists for placing a
+man in command.
+
+Nobody knows how old Petra is, but it was a thriving city when
+Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, and for a full five thousand
+years it has had but that one entrance, through a gorge that
+narrows finally until only one loaded camel at a time can pass.
+Army after army down the centuries have tried to storm the place,
+and failed, so that even the invincible Alexander and the Romans
+had to fall back on the arts of friendship to obtain the key. We,
+the last invaders, came as friends, if only Grim could persuade
+the tyrant to believe it.
+
+The sun rose over the city just as we reached the narrowest part
+of the gut, Grim leading, and its first rays showed that we were
+using the bed of a watercourse for a road. Exactly in front of
+us, glimpsed through a twelve-foot gap between cliffs six hundred
+feet high, was a sight worth going twice that distance, running
+twice that risk, to see--a rose-red temple front, carved out
+of the solid valley wall and glistening in the opalescent
+hues of morning.
+
+Not even Burkhardt, who was the first civilized man to see the
+place in a thousand years, described that temple properly;
+because you can't. It is huge--majestic--silent--empty--aglow
+with all the prism colors in the morning sun. And it seems
+to think.
+
+It takes you so by surprise when you first see it that in face of
+that embodied mystery of ancient days your brain won't work, and
+you want to sit spellbound. But Grim had done our thinking for
+us, so that we were not the only ones surprised. Such was the
+confidence of safety that those huge walls and the narrow
+entrance to the place inspire that Ali Higg had set only four men
+to keep the gate; and they slept with their weapons beside them,
+never believing that strangers would dare essay that ghost-haunted
+ravine by night.
+
+They were pounced on and tied almost before their eyes were open;
+and, catching sight of Jael Higg first, and getting only a
+glimpse of Grim, they rather naturally thought their chief had
+caught them napping; so they neither cried out nor made any
+attempt to defend themselves; and presently, when they discovered
+their mistake, the fear of being crucified for having slept on
+duty kept them dumb.
+
+Grim led the way straight to that amazing temple, and we invaded
+it, camels and all, off-loading the camels inside in a hurry and
+then driving them out again to lie down in the wide porch between
+the columns and the temple wall. The porch was so vast that even
+all our string of camels did not crowd it.
+
+The main part of the interior was a perfect cube of forty feet,
+all hand-hewn from the cliff, and there were numerous rooms
+leading out of it that had once been occupied by the priests of
+Isis, but "the lion and the lizard" had lived in them since their
+day. We put the prisoners, including Ayisha's four men, in one
+room under guard.
+
+That much was hardly accomplished when the spirit of our
+seventeen thieves reacted to their surroundings, and all the
+advantage of our secret arrival was suddenly undone. Half of them
+had gone outside to tie the camels, under Ali Baba's watchful
+eye; and it was he, as a matter of fact, who started it. From
+inside we heard a regular din of battle commencing--loud shouts
+and irregular rifle-fire--and I followed Grim out in a hurry.
+
+There was no enemy in sight. Old Ali Baba was busy reloading his
+rifle fifty paces away in front of the temple door, facing us
+with his sons, in a semicircle around him, and they were shooting
+at something over our heads. Grim laughed rather bitterly.
+
+"My mistake," he said. "I ought to have thought of that."
+
+So I went out to see.
+
+Surmounting the temple front, at least a hundred feet above the
+pavement and perfectly inaccessible, was a beautifully carved
+stone urn surmounting a battered image of some god or goddess. It
+was in shadow, because the cliff wall, from which the temple had
+been carved, overhung it; so it was peculiarly difficult to hit,
+even at that range; but they were all firing away at it as if Ali
+Higg and all his men were hidden behind the thing. There was no
+particular need to stop them, for they had made noise enough
+already to awake the very slumbering bones of Petra. Ali Baba
+advised me to shoot too, and I asked him why.
+
+"To burst the thing."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"That we make a profit from this venture."
+
+"How?"
+
+He paused to reload once more. He had already fired away about
+fifteen cartridges.
+
+"Allah! The very dogs of El-Kalil have heard of Pharaoh's treasure."
+
+"I am neither a dog," said I, "nor an inhabitant of El-Kalil, for
+which Allah for his thoughtfulness be praised! Tell me what you
+and the dogs know."
+
+"This place was the treasury of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, a bad
+king and an unbeliever, whom may Allah curse! In that urn are his
+gold and rubies. If we can crack it they will come tumbling down
+and we shall all be rich."
+
+_"Mashallah!_ You believe that? Why haven't Ali Higg and his men
+cracked it, then?"
+
+_"Shu halalk?_* I have told you Pharaoh was an evil king. He was
+in league with devils and bewitched the place. The devils guard
+it. May Allah twist their tails! Look--see! We shoot, but the
+bullets miss the mark each time!"
+
+--------
+* What chatter is this?
+--------
+
+"Perhaps you haven't prayed enough to exorcize the devils?" I
+suggested, and he dropped the butt of his rifle on the ground to
+consider the proposition.
+
+"Out of the mouth of an unbeliever has come wisdom before now,"
+he said. "There may be truth in that."
+
+And he called all his sons and grandsons there and then to spread
+their mats and pray toward Mecca, performing the prescribed
+ablutions first with water from one of the goatskin bags.
+
+Well, there wasn't any further use in trying to keep our
+movements secret. Grim beckoned me to where he stood beside
+Narayan Singh, with Ayisha looking mischievous in the gloom
+behind them, and issued final instructions.
+
+"Present my compliments and these gifts to Ali Higg--I'm busy at
+prayer, remember--and say how greatly honored we feel to have
+escorted his wife across the desert. If he asks where her four
+men are, tell him I'll bring them later. Be sure and make me out
+a great sheikh, and say I heard he is sick, so sent my _hakim_ in
+advance to give him relief; then do your best for him, if he'll
+let you--after Ayisha has done her worst," he added in a whisper.
+"Don't forget you're a _darwaish._ The more you jaw religion the
+better the old rascal will like you. See you soon. So long!"
+
+So Narayan Singh and I, followed by Ayisha and two of Ali Baba's
+sons, left that ancient temple bearing the medicine-chest as well
+as presents, and I hope the others did not feel as scared as I did.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"Yet I Forgot to Speak of the Twenty Aeroplanes!"
+
+
+
+You can expect anything, of course, of Arabs. People who will
+pitch black cotton tents in the scorching sun, and live in them
+in preference to gorgeous cool stone temples because of the
+devils and ghosts that they believe to haunt those habitable
+splendors, will believe anything at all except the truth, and act
+in any way except reasonably. So I tried to believe it was all
+right to be unreasonable too.
+
+You would think, wouldn't you, that a man who had set himself up
+to be the holy terror of a country-side and put his heel on the
+necks of all the tribes for miles around, would have made use at
+least of the caves and tombs to strengthen his position. There
+were thousands of them all among those opal-colored cliffs, to
+say nothing of ruined buildings; yet not one was occupied. Ayisha
+had told most of the truth when she said in El-Kalil that her
+people lived in tents.
+
+We walked down the paved street of a city between oleander bushes
+that had forced themselves up between the cracks, toward an
+enormous open amphitheater hewn by the Romans out of a hillside,
+with countless tiers of ruined stone seats rising one above the
+other like giant steps.
+
+In the center of that the tents were pitched, and the only
+building in use was a great half-open cave on another hillside,
+in which Ayisha told us Ali Higg himself lived, overlooking the
+entire camp and directing its destinies.
+
+On the top of the mountain in front of us was the tomb of Aaron,
+Moses' brother. On another mountain farther off stood a great
+crusader castle all in ruins; and to left and right were endless
+remains of civilization that throve when the British were living
+in mud-and-wattle huts. The dry climate had preserved it all; but
+there was water enough; it only needed the labor of a thousand
+men to remake a city of it.
+
+We avoided the amphitheater with its hundreds of tents pitched
+inside and all about it, because Ayisha said the women would come
+running out to greet her, and she did not desire that any more
+than we did. So we turned to the right, and started up a flight
+of steps nearly a mile long that led to an ancient place of
+sacrifice; two hundred yards up that the track turned off that
+led to Ali Higg's cavern.
+
+It was there, where the broken steps and sidetrack met, that the
+first men came hurrying to meet us and blocked our way--four of
+them, active as goats, and looking fierce enough to scare away
+twice their number. But they recognized Ayisha, and stood aside
+at once to let us pass, showing her considerable gruff respect
+and asking a string of questions, which she countered with
+platitudes. They did not follow us, but stayed on guard at the
+corner, as if the meeting between Ali Higg and his wife were
+something to keep from prying eyes.
+
+So the far-famed Ali Higg was alone in his great cave when we
+reached it, sitting near the entrance propped on skins and
+cushions with a perfect armory of weapons on the floor beside
+him. The interior was hung with fine Bokhara embroideries, and
+every inch of the floor was covered with rugs.
+
+There was another cave opening into that in which he sat; and it,
+too, was richly decorated; but the sound of women's voices that
+we heard came from a third cave around the corner of the cliff
+wall, not connected. Ali Higg was apparently in no mood for
+female company--or any other kind.
+
+In the shadow of the overhanging rock he looked so like Grim it
+was laughable. He was a caricature of our man, with all the
+refinement and humor subtly changed into irritable anger. He
+looked as if he would scream if you touched him, and no wonder;
+for the back of the poor fellow's neck, half hidden by the folds
+of his head-cloth, was a perfect mess of boils that made every
+movement of his head an agony.
+
+His eyes were darker than Grim's, and blazed as surely no white
+man's ever did; and his likeness to Grim was lessened by the fact
+that he had not been shaved for a day or two, and the sparse
+black hair coarsened the outline of his chin and jaw. In spite of
+his illness he had not laid aside the bandolier that crossed his
+breast, nor the two daggers tucked into his waist-cloth. And he
+laid his hand on a modern British Army rifle the minute he caught
+sight of us.
+
+Narayan Singh and I both bowed and, after greeting him with the
+proper sonorous blessing, stood aside to let Ayisha approach. We
+should have demeaned ourselves in his eyes, and hers as well, if
+we had walked behind her. He nodded to us curtly, and almost
+smiled at her; but that one wry twist of his lips was his nearest
+approach to pleasantry that morning.
+
+She knelt and kissed his hands and feet, waiting to speak until
+she was spoken to; and he did not speak to her at all, but signed
+to her with a tap on the head and a gesture to take her place on
+the rug behind him. Then at a motion from me Ali Baba's two sons
+brought forward the presents and the medicine-chest, setting them
+down before him in the cave-mouth.
+
+The presents were pretty good, I thought. I would not have minded
+owning them myself; but he eyed them dully. There was a set of
+Solingen razors, marked in Arabic with the days of the week; a
+cloak of blue-and-white-striped cloth, fit for any prince of
+Bedouins; and an ormolu clock with a gong inside it that would
+have graced the chimneypiece of a Brooklyn boarding-house.
+
+_"Mar'haba!"_* he said at last, by way of acknowledging our
+existence, after he had stared at the presents for about two
+minutes sourly; and I took that for permission to say my little
+piece. [* Greeting]
+
+So I delivered Grim's message, saying that he was a most
+God-fearing and hard-fighting sheikh from Palestine, who had had
+the honor to escort his mightiness' wife to Petra, and now,
+learning of the illness of the famous Lion of Petra, who might
+Allah bless for ever, rather than postpone his devotions had sent
+me, his _hakim,_ schooled in medicine at Lahore University, and a
+_darwaish_ to boot, to offer such relief as my modest skill
+might compass.
+
+That was a long speech to get off in Arabic for a comparative
+beginner. I rather expected him to smile or say something
+pleasant in return, but he didn't.
+
+"By Allah, you have come to poison me!" he growled. "All _hakims_
+are alike. There was an Egyptian tried it a month ago. Look
+yonder on the ledge, where his skull hangs. May devils burn
+his soul!"
+
+It was easy enough to look shocked at that suggestion. He had the
+drop on me for one thing; and, for another, Ayisha was whispering
+to him, and I couldn't guess whether she was betraying me or not.
+It turned out that that young woman was much too bent on swapping
+owners to do anything but smooth our path; but I wasn't so sure
+of that then as Narayan Singh seemed to be, and as, for that
+matter, Grim was too.
+
+But he seemed to grow a little less irascible, until she leaned
+too close to him and touched his neck. Then he went off like a
+pent-up volcano, and cursed her until she shuddered; and her
+fright gave him no satisfaction, because he could not turn his
+head to look at her.
+
+"Where is this cursed person?" he demanded, meaning Grim,
+of course.
+
+"He rests at the treasury of Pharaoh," said I, hoping that as
+Narayan Singh and I both stood exactly in front of him he might
+not catch sight of Grim's movements in the valley below.
+
+"How did he enter Petra without my leave?" he demanded.
+
+I took a long pause, for that was an awkward question. I could
+not very well admit that Grim had seized and imprisoned his
+watchmen. But Narayan Singh strode into the breach.
+
+"The Lion's jackals slept," he announced in a voice of righteous
+indignation. "There was none to give our great Sheikh Jimgrim as
+much as Allah's blessing. Nevertheless, he sends these presents."
+
+Without answering that Ali Higg clapped his hands twice, and a
+woman came around the corner from a near-by cave. By her bearing
+she was either a junior wife or a concubine, and she greeted
+Ayisha like a sister with a great pow-wow of blessing and reply.
+But Ali Higg cut all that short. He was no sentimentalist.
+
+"Find Shammas Abdul," he ordered her. "Order him to take camel
+and meet the men returning from the Ben Aroun raid. Let him bid
+them hurry. Go!"
+
+She obeyed on the run. There was discipline in that man's camp,
+as long as he was looking. But Ayisha followed the woman out, and
+whether she herself found Shammas Abdul, or whether she contrived
+to pervert the junior wife, Grim presently became aware of that
+move to summon forth men, and governed himself accordingly.
+
+For about a minute Ali Higg fixed baleful eyes on me.
+
+"You are a Shia!" he snapped suddenly. "A Persian! A cursed heretic!"
+
+A look of pained surprise was the best retort I could accomplish;
+but Narayan Singh came to the rescue again. He thumped a fist on
+his chest as if it were a drum, and glared indignantly.
+
+"Would I, a Pathan of the Orakzai, demean myself by being servant
+to a Persian?" he demanded. "Lo! We bring gifts. What manner of
+desert man are you that reward us with insults!"
+
+"Peace!" I said. "Peace!" remembering the Sikh's counsel about
+the middle course I should pursue. "The Lion is sick. May Allah
+take pity on him!"
+
+Narayan Singh growled in his beard by way of submitting to the mild
+rebuke, and Ali Higg--a little bit impressed perhaps--proceeded
+to question me on doctrine and theology, showing a zeal for
+splitting hairs that would have done credit to a Cairo _m'allim._
+But I had had lots of instruction on those points, and in fact
+surprised him with a trite fanaticism equal to his own, ending
+with a statement that whoever did not believe every article
+and precept of the Sunni faith not only was damned forever
+beyond hope, but should be despatched in a hurry to face
+the dreadful consequences.
+
+His eyes softened considerably at that; and for the moment I
+think he almost approved of me, in spite of the foreign accent
+that must have grated on his ears, and his national dislike of
+any one who hailed from India. He actually told both of us to be
+seated, and clapped his hands again. Another woman came, looking
+dreadfully afraid of him.
+
+"Coffee!" he ordered.
+
+We sat down on the ledge of rock in front of him, for although it
+was hardly wise to seem too deferent, it would have been most
+unwise to move away and give him an unobstructed view of the
+valley, where Grim might be in sight or might not be. Our job was
+to gain time.
+
+He did not say a word until the coffee came, beyond swearing
+scandalously when he moved his head and the boils hurt.
+
+"O Allah, may Your neck hurt You as mine does me!"
+
+I thought that pretty good for such a hard-and-fast doctrinaire,
+but it was almost mild compared to some of his other remarks.
+
+The woman brought the coffee on a tray in little silver cups--as
+good and as well served as if our host were a Cairene pasha; but
+our irascible host took none, for Ayisha called out and warned
+him not to, saying it would heat his boils.
+
+She came like the wife of Heber the Kenite, who slew Sisera,
+"bringing forth butter in a lordly dish." She held in both hands
+a marvelous Persian rose-bowl half filled with clabber, saying
+she had prepared it for her lord herself, and offered it to him
+on bended knees.
+
+I could not see her face, for her back was toward me and she had
+her shawl over her head; but I thought of that little vial of
+croton oil Narayan Singh had given her instead of poison, and the
+Sikh caught my eye meaningly.
+
+Ali Higg was pleased to condescend. He took the bowl in both
+hands, muttered a blessing, and drank deep, swallowing about half
+the stuff before he noticed its strange flavor. Then he flung the
+priceless bowl away from him, smashing it to atoms, and picked up
+his rifle to take an aim at Ayisha.
+
+"By Allah, the bint* has poisoned me!"
+
+---------
+* Literally girl; about as respectful as the word "skirt" would
+be if used of one's wife.
+---------
+
+She screamed and ran. He fired, but she was already past the
+corner, and the bullet grazed the rock. Moreover, croton oil is a
+drastic cathartic, and waits on no man's convenience. He dropped
+the rifle, groaned--and I would rather not set down quite all
+the rest.
+
+Sufficient that it gave Narayan Singh and me our opportunity. It
+made him too weak to resist, and we took care of him. I let him
+go on believing he was poisoned, and gave him harmless doses that
+he presently believed had saved his life; so that even the
+tyrannical fanatic felt a kind of gratitude.
+
+Held like a baby in the Sikh's enormous arms with no less than
+half a dozen terrified women looking on--for they had all run one
+way while Ayisha ran the other--he slowly recovered control of
+his emotions, while the women loudly praised my medicinal skill.
+
+And since I knew almost nothing at all of medicine, and therefore
+could say anything I chose without feeling guilty--like the
+fellow on a soapbox who harangues a crowd on politics--I told him
+he must have the boils lanced there and then, or otherwise the
+poison might get to them and inflame them beyond all hope.
+
+I suppose the men who had met us at the corner of the great
+flight of steps did not come and interrupt because they had had
+enough of his temper for one morning and did not choose to sample
+it again uninvited. The rifle-shot did not bring them, because it
+was nothing new for him to vent displeasure by shooting at folk;
+and if there were a corpse, and it had not fallen over the cliff
+or been kicked over, they would come and remove it when ordered,
+but certainly not sooner.
+
+Ali Higg has strength enough left to assure me that if I killed
+him he would wait for me in the next world and settle the account
+there. I told him what was perfectly true, that I would rather
+lose my hand than kill him, so he added that if I hurt him more
+than was reasonable four camels should be told off afterward to
+hurt me.
+
+Seeing he was to be sole judge of what was reasonable pain, and
+having no means of guessing whether Grim was still alive and able
+to protect me, I decided to give him a hypodermic, and put a shot
+into his arm that would have quieted a _must_ elephant. Maybe I
+rather overdid that, but as I have no medical diploma nobody can
+call me to account.
+
+And the operation was successful, if unpleasant. I used one of
+the presentation razors.
+
+Then Grim came striding up the mountain-ledge, with Ali Baba and
+all the rest of the gang at his tail, but no sign anywhere of
+Jael Higg. He stood and boomed out a sonorous Arab blessing; and
+if ever a man felt and looked like a trapped wild beast it was
+that Lord of the Limits of the Desert and Lion of Petra, Ali Higg.
+
+However, Narayan Singh and I had played our part and got him weak
+enough; he could not even jump to grab his rifle. The rest was
+clearly up to Grim, who looked in no hurry at all.
+
+He stood in the cave entrance with the light behind him, turning
+slightly sidewise to let Ali Higg see him in profile. The Lion's
+jaw dropped. Grim's very head-dress was striped like Ali Higg's.
+His cloak was the same color. He had been dressed rather
+differently when I last saw him, so he must have been doing some
+pretty careful spy-work.
+
+Of course, a close examination showed a dozen differences between
+the two men, but in his weak state following that drastic physic
+and the operation Ali Higg believed for a moment that he saw his
+own ghost! One or two of the women checked a scream, which helped
+matters, and the others shrank into a corner, staring with wild
+eyes. One woman laughed, but not from amusement.
+
+_"Salamun alaik,_ O Ali Higg!" said Grim after a full minute's silence.
+
+_"Wa alaik issalam!_ Who are you, in the name of Allah?"
+
+Instead of answering Grim strode in, and Ali Baba lined up his
+sons across the cave-mouth. Unless Grim had left undone some
+precaution in the camp below it looked as if we had the Lion
+caged to rights, and you could tell by the look in Ali Baba's
+usually mild old eyes that there would have been short shrift for
+somebody if his advice were taken. For a moment I caught sight of
+Ayisha peering timidly between the end man and the wall--to see,
+I suppose, whether the Lion was dead yet--but the minute I caught
+her eye she disappeared.
+
+Grim stooped down over Ali Higg, who was sprawling on his stomach
+on a Persian rug.
+
+"Has my _hakim_ relieved Your Honor's pain?" he asked.
+
+The Lion managed to sit upright. Three of the women piled
+cushions behind him and ran back again to their corner.
+
+"Who are you in my likeness?"
+
+"A friend, _inshallah,"_ answered Grim.
+
+He squatted down cross-legged on the mat in front of him; for
+though the Lion's neck was pretty nicely bandaged and the
+hypodermic had not lost its power, yet it hurt him quite a
+little to look up.
+
+"I had three brothers, but thou art none of them. I had one
+son, but neither art thou he. In the name of the All-Knowing,
+name thyself!"
+
+"I am he," said Grim, "who brought Your Honor's wife from El-Kalil."
+
+"Oh! And a million curses on the bint! She tried within the hour
+to poison me. But for this Indian of thine I were a dead man now.
+Stay! Send for her!"
+
+He clapped his hands.
+
+"Let her be flung over the cliff. Go bring her!" But nobody moved
+to do his bidding, and it dawned on him a second time that he was
+cornered. He wasn't a man who took such a discovery mildly.
+
+"Ayisha shall be dealt with at the proper time!" he snarled. "I
+have not accepted those gifts. Take them up! You who have entered
+Petra without my leave shall account to my men presently.
+Thereafter we will talk of gifts."
+
+"Which men?" Grim asked him blandly. "Surely not the forty and
+four who went to raid the Beni Aroun? Nay, I took the liberty of
+sending them a message signed with Your Honor's seal. They will
+not come for a day or two, so we can make friends undisturbed."
+
+_"Shu halalk?_ With my seal?"
+
+"With Your Honor's seal. Observe; I have it."
+
+"Then--then--Where is she into whose hands I gave it?"
+
+That was the first sign that Ali Higg had given of the slightest
+affection for any one. His face looked ghastly at the thought of
+losing that strange, half-western wife of his.
+
+He had called Ayisha by her name in front of strangers, out of
+disrespect. Jael he would not name, even when confronted by the
+proof that she had broken trust and lost his precious seal.
+
+"I took another liberty," said Grim. "I sent word by messenger,
+who bore a letter sealed with that same seal, to Ibrahim ben Ah.
+He will neither raid El-Maan nor return to Petra."
+
+"He is defeated?" asked the Lion, dumbfounded. "And she--is
+she a prisoner?"
+
+Grim did not answer either question.
+
+"And I met a man named Yussuf. You know him?"
+
+_"Naam."_ (Yes).
+
+"He has been lying to Your Honor. He has said that the British
+are helpless. He brought Your Honor a report from Palestine that
+was a skein of falsehood hung up on little pegs of truth. He told
+you the British are not able to defend themselves, he knowing
+better; for he is one of those men who say always what the hearer
+would like to hear."
+
+"What has that to do with thee?" demanded Ali Higg.
+
+He was looking about him furtively, and Narayan Singh picked up
+his rifle off the rug and stood it against the wall. Grim turned
+toward Ali Baba.
+
+"Bring Yussuf!" he ordered.
+
+The ranks opened, and Yussuf was thrust forward into the cave,
+where he stood looking like a felon awaiting sentence.
+
+"Did you speak the truth, or did you lie to the Lion of Petra?"
+Grim demanded.
+
+"Who am I that should know the truth of such matters?" the man
+whined, his voice squeaking like a cart-wheel. "I obeyed. I
+looked. I asked. Perhaps I did not understand all I saw and what
+was told me."
+
+"Is the Lion of Petra with ten-score fighting men able to stand
+against the British with twenty thousand?" Grim asked him.
+
+_"Inshallah._ The Lion is brave. Who knows? Yet I forgot to speak
+of the twenty aeroplanes at Ludd, each having ten bombs of a
+hundred pounds weight that could make short work in an hour or
+two of ten score men."
+
+"Why don't they come?" snarled Ali Higg.
+
+"They take no delight in slaying the women and children,"
+answered Grim. "Those black tents below there would be an easy
+mark to aim at; but who would gain? It is better that peace
+were kept."
+
+"Throw that Yussuf over the cliff!" commanded Ali Higg.
+
+But once more nobody moved to obey him, and Yussuf had the indecency
+to smirk, for which Grim cursed him with whiplash sarcasm.
+
+Then Ali Higg put both hands before his face and prayed aloud:
+
+"O Allah, Lord of mercies and of wisdom and rebuke, if I am in
+the hands of enemies and she who was the mother of good plans is
+taken away from me, have I not, nevertheless, smitten the heretic
+in thy name and raised thy banner over Petra? Give me, then,
+wisdom, that I deal with these men and confound thy enemies. _La
+Allah illa Allah!"_
+
+He dropped his hands and looked up with a hard, fanatical frenzy
+in his eyes. But they changed almost instantly. The ranks of Ali
+Baba's men opened once more; and Jael Higg stepped through,
+dressed like a fighting Bedouin, bandolier and all. Grim had even
+let her have a rifle and cartridges. As he promised, he had put
+her to no indignity.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+"There is a Trick to Ruling!"
+
+
+
+Don't you hate a story with a moral in it? I do. This is an
+immoral story. And, remember, I said in the beginning that it had
+no end, but was no more than an episode in the career of Ali
+Higg. I would have liked to tell it from his viewpoint setting
+down what he thought of this unexpected stick thrown in his
+wheel, omitting most of the bad language for the censor's sake.
+
+His first thought was that Jael had returned from the raid with a
+hundred and forty men. You could tell that by the light in his
+eyes, even before he spoke.
+
+"Allah reward you; you come in time! Have Ayisha and that Yussuf
+thrown over the cliff. Praised be Allah, I shall be obeyed at last!"
+
+It was his worst shock yet when even Jael did not start at once
+to carry out his order. Instead, she sat down on the rug, so that
+she and Ali Higg and Grim formed a triangle.
+
+"O Lion of Petra," she said--for it would not have been manners
+to call him by his right name in front of strangers--"what was
+written has come to pass, and my foreboding was a true one. If we
+had let the tribes at El-Maan be, and if you had kept those forty
+men instead of sending them to raid the Beni Aroun, this could
+not have happened. Now twenty men have cornered us, while Ibrahim
+ben Ah eats up provisions to no purpose, sitting idly in
+the desert."
+
+"Then the El-Maan men were not scattered to the winds?" groaned
+Ali Higg. "O Allah, may shame devour you as it tortures me! Those
+dogs will have looted a train and will say that Ali Higg no
+longer dares interfere! The sun rises, but it sets at evening,
+since Allah wills; but is my day so short?"
+
+"By no means," answered Grim. "The El-Maan men saw me and
+believed I was the Lion of Petra. I forbade the looting of the
+train, and Your Honor's wife Ayisha went to El-Maan to enforce
+obedience by her presence.
+
+"Later they saw me start for Petra when the train had passed; and
+now they will learn that Ibrahim ben Ah with seven score men is
+bivouacking in the desert. The world is round, O Ali Higg, so
+that where in one place it seems dark in another they say the sun
+is rising."
+
+"In Allah's name, who art thou?" asked the Lion.
+
+"James Schuyler Grim. Men call me Jimgrim."
+
+"Allah! _Wallahi haida fasl!_* Not he who fought under Lawrence
+against the Turks? _Wallah!_ I fought on the other side, but we
+all feared Lawrence and admired him so that not a man would try
+to capture him, although Djemal Pasha put a great price on his
+head. And you were known far and wide as his man! There was a
+price on your head too--dead or alive--five thousand pounds
+Turkish--well I remember it. By the beard of the Prophet, you
+might have come here as a friend, O Jimgrim!"
+
+------------
+* By Allah, this is a strange happening.
+------------
+
+Grim laughed.
+
+"I come here as a friend in any case," he answered. _"Khajjaltni
+bima'rufak!_* You brought back a woman to poison me!"
+
+-----------
+* You shame me with your friendship!
+-----------
+
+And this is where the immorality comes in. I told a lie, and
+don't regret it. Nor did Grim regret it; and he backed me up. And
+Narayan Singh supported both of us.
+
+The lie was my own idea entirely, invented on the spur of the
+moment; and afterward, when old Ali Baba named me The "Father of
+Lies" on the strength of it I felt extremely proud, as he
+intended that I should do. The lie worked.
+
+I said:
+
+"O Ali Higg, men said of you that you are a fierce man, swift in
+wrath and slow to take advice. And others said that you are sick
+with burning boils; yet who shall go into the Lion's den and heal
+him? And Ayisha said to me:
+
+"'Thou art a _hakim,_ yet he will never listen to thee. But he is
+my lord, and shall I see him linger in agony? Give me a potion
+that will weaken him. Then in his weakness he will call for help,
+and thou shalt heal the boils. And afterward that which is
+written shall come to pass. If in great wrath because I mixed the
+potion in his drink he shall have me slain, nevertheless the Lion
+will be whole again; and who am I compared to him?' So said the
+lady Ayisha."
+
+I know Grim would have given a hundred dollars for leave to laugh
+then right out in meeting; but he kept a straight face, and he
+had so contrived to make Jael Higg afraid of him that though she
+looked scandalized she held her tongue. And Narayan Singh, as I
+said, supported me.
+
+"These words are true, O Lion of Petra," he boomed out. "I heard
+the lady Ayisha speak, and it was I who put the little vial in
+her hands. By the beard of the Prophet I swear the words are true."
+
+But as he is a Sikh, and therefore believes that the prophet of
+El-Islam was a liar and impostor, with a beard as fit to be
+dishonored as his fiery creed, perhaps his perjury was scarcely
+technical. Anyhow, I am not the recording angel. And Grim said,
+being a more cautious liar than the rest of us:
+
+"Therefore, O Lion of Petra, mercy is due to the lady Ayisha,
+seeing that the end in view was good, although the means
+were questionable."
+
+But Jael Higg looked daggers at her lord. She had made up her
+mind to reduce that establishment by one at least; and Ali Higg,
+looking in her eyes, read what all polygamous husbands have had
+to face ever since the day when Abraham was forced to drive
+out Hagar into the wilderness. So he pronounced one of those
+Solomon-like judgments that are the secret of a man's rule over
+men in that land, granting to each contender the whole of what he
+asked, yet having his own way in the bargain.
+
+"I find she is not worthy of death," he said, "since she played a
+trick that brought me comfort. Yet I will not endure a woman's
+tricks, nor condone the offense. I divorce her. Before witnesses
+I say she is divorced."
+
+It's a simple affair in that land, isn't it?
+
+But there were matters not so simple to attend to, and Grim saw
+fit to waste no further time.
+
+"I said I come as a friend," he resumed.
+
+"I heard it!" the Lion answered dryly.
+
+"Without boasting, I have saved you from destruction, while
+delivering your purchases from El-Kalil. And I have done your
+name no harm, but good on the country-side."
+
+"Allah! How have you saved me from destruction?"
+
+"By preventing that unwise raid on El-Maan."
+
+_"Wallahi!_ Do you think my men could not have accomplished it?"
+
+"Maybe. Do you think the British would be fools enough to let
+that go unpunished? The El-Maan people would surely have appealed
+to them. Aeroplanes would have been sent to bomb you out of
+Petra. Can you fight aeroplanes?"
+
+"The British do not pretend to rule on this side of the Jordan,"
+the Lion retorted.
+
+"No. Do you want them to pretend to?"
+
+"Allah forbid!"
+
+"Then take a friend's advice, O Ali Higg, and keep the peace here
+rather than make war."
+
+"That is good advice; but will the British make a treaty with me?"
+
+"No," Grim answered, smiling. "By that they would recognize
+you as a ruler, which they will not do until they surely know
+you rule."
+
+_"Mashallah!_ How shall men know that I am a ruler unless I make
+war and enforce my will?"
+
+"Have I made war on you?" asked Grim. "Have I disarmed you, or
+killed one man? Yet I enforce my will, as you shall see."
+
+"By a trick! You played a trick on me, or otherwise--"
+
+"There is a trick to ruling," answered Grim.
+
+"By the beard of the Prophet, that is true! But show me a trick
+that can defeat eight hundred men. The Sheikh of Abu Lissan plans
+to come against me. Those El-Mann dogs had heard of it, and so
+had the Beni Aroun; therefore I planned to crush them first
+before dealing with Abu Lissan. Show me a trick that can defeat
+the Abu Lissan men, and surely I will call thee friend!"
+
+"Suppose we make a bargain, then," said Grim.
+
+_"Taib._ I am ready."
+
+"Giving pledges for fulfilment."
+
+"You mean I shall give pledges to the British?"
+
+"Hardly," Grim answered. "If they took a pledge from you that
+would be like signing a treaty, wouldn't it? I have no authority
+to sign a treaty. This must be a bargain between me and thee."
+
+_"Taib."_
+
+"It is known," said Grim, "that you have money on deposit with
+the Bank of Egypt."
+
+"A lie! A lie!" snapped Ali Higg. "Who said it?"
+
+"Fifty thousand pounds in gold was the exact amount, deposited at
+six percent, and interest to be compounded every half-year," said
+Grim. "And because the Koran denounces usury by Moslems, and you
+are a pious man--and also perhaps because of the risk attached to
+using your name in the matter--your wife Jael's name was used.
+Nevertheless, your seal was used at the time as a check on her.
+Now, at a word from me the British would impound that money,
+interest and all."
+
+"A murrian on them! But you spoke of being friends?"
+
+"And of a pledge between you and me. In proof that I speak as a
+friend, though I had your seal I have returned it."
+
+Jael Higg confirmed that by displaying it in the hollow of
+her hand.
+
+"You can't possibly prevent a message from me reaching British
+territory," Grim went on. "A letter is written already, and you
+don't know which man has it. You are not my prisoner. I intend to
+leave you free and unharmed. It is possible you might attack me
+when I go, and kill me and some of my men; but the rest would
+escape. And then would come aeroplanes, and you would never see
+that money in the Bank of Egypt."
+
+The Lion blinked away steadily, looking so absurdly like Grim
+in some respects, and so utterly unlike him in character
+nevertheless, that it looked like plus opposing minus, or a
+strong man tempted by his baser self.
+
+"Therefore," continued Grim, "if you will promise me to raid no
+more villages I will undertake to deal with the Sheikh of Abu
+Lissan. But as a pledge, Jael and you must sign and seal a letter
+to the Bank of Egypt stipulating that the fifty thousand pounds
+shall not be withdrawn for three years. As long as you keep your
+promise that money of yours shall be safe, with no questions
+asked as to how you came by it; for I shall not say a word about
+it to the British Government, making only a sealed report,
+which shall be locked away and never opened unless you break
+the bargain."
+
+"And at the end of three years?"
+
+"Who knows?" Grim answered. "The years are on the lap of Allah.
+By then we may all be dead, or you may be king, or may be weary
+of politics--who knows?"
+
+"And if I refuse?"
+
+"Aeroplanes!"
+
+"But how shall I believe you?"
+
+"Do I not pledge my life?" Grim answered. "I have said that I
+will go to Abu Lissan."
+
+"Allah! Why don't you send the aeroplanes to Abu Lissan? Blot the
+dogs out! Destroy them! Why not?"
+
+"Would it not be easier to send them here?" asked Grim. "This is
+only part way. You, who found it easier to crush the smaller
+first, tell me why the aeroplanes should not come first to Petra!"
+
+_"Wallahi!_ I wish I had aeroplanes!"
+
+"But you haven't. Choose now: Will you make that bargain with me,
+or shall I go straight back from here to Palestine and make my
+report to the administrator? Never doubt that I can get back; I
+know where your men are, and I know the desert trails as well as
+you do. You and your few men that you have here and the women
+might attack us in the Wady Musa,* but I would prevent that by
+taking you and Jael with me until we reached the open."
+
+----------
+* The name of the valley that leads into Petra
+----------
+
+"You talk boldly," the Lion sneered. "If you think you can take
+us with you that far then why not to Jerusalem? The words of a
+boaster are a mask of doubt. Hah! Take us to Jerusalem! Why not?"
+
+"Because then," Grim answered, "there would be ten-score
+cutthroats at large without a leader who can hold them. One
+Lion can keep a bargain, but ten score jackals would ruin
+a country-side."
+
+Ali Higg turned that over in his mind for five full minutes, like
+a chess player refusing to admit that he is mated. But there
+wasn't a move left to him, and Jael went closer on her knees to
+whisper advice in his ear.
+
+"I agree," he said at last. "As Allah is my witness, I agree. Let
+us be friends, O Jimgrim!"
+
+Grim shook hands with him and offered him a cigarette, while Ali
+Baba's men outside the cave sent up a great shout of victory.
+Then to Ali Higg's inexpressible delight Mahommed started to sing
+the Akbar song, and they all roared the chorus:
+
+_"Akbar! Akbar! Akbar Ali Higg!"_
+
+The song put everybody in good temper, so that when Jael wrote
+out a letter to the bank at Grim's dictation Ali Higg affixed the
+seal to it without a murmur and ordered food supplied at once to
+all Grim's men; and we had a feast up there on the ledge outside
+the cave--in sight of the very spot where Amaziah, King of
+Israel, once hurled ten thousand of his enemies into the
+gorge below--that, in some respects, was the most enjoyable
+I ever shared.
+
+But Grim was not the man to spoil success by lingering in what
+might yet turn into a trap. He who sups with the devil should not
+sit long at the feast; and I warned you this was a story without
+an end to it.
+
+There is the lady Ayisha, and what became of her, and the account
+of when and in what way the Lion kept his bargain. Well, have you
+heard of those tale-tellers in the East, who sit under a village
+tree with the menfolk all around them? They work up to the
+climax, and then pause, and pass the begging-bowl for whatever
+the tale is worth. I fear those masters of inducement would mock
+me as a tyro for having already told too much before the pause!
+
+
+_The End_
+
+------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lion of Petra, by Talbot Mundy
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