Part 11 (1/2)

”Let Allah witness!” answered Grima; 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 -hill it will be to burn it,” Grim answered

”Send me out that black-faced liar and the Bishareen I a 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 retted it?

But by the beard of Allah's Prophet,” he thundered suddenly, ”I groeary of words! What son of sixty dogs dares keepin the desert while he barks?”

Mahommed Abbas did not like that medicine, especially in front of all hisstock-still at a respectful distance; for the na meant evidently more to them than the honor of their own sheikh--which at best depends on the sheikh's own generalshi+p It was a safe bet that if he had called on them to attack that nified Arab salute, which Grihtest 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, s ”I've learned never to try a bluff unless I'uy doesn't own overnment 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 Maho 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 hi him feel any better, for he too was a Hebronireater robber Ali Higg

Then the sheikh's ifts on Grietables, and cae theh, who proe 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'sbehind us back to cae of a dune, and co to life like a heron as soon as we drew near

”All's well,” said Gri! 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 ers; he does not like it even fro incomprehensible, but quite the reverse, about that requiree should trespass in our direction all that day And, of course, only a bold robber conscious of his power to enforce theood thing that Mahommed Abbas did not call the bluff

As it e slept allundisturbed, 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 theevery other consideration aside the erous coether in his own htened 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 ruet one chance to talk with the lady Ayisha's ue in some ith 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 ht make some chance remark that would inform Ayisha or her escort

Grih and me instructions how to do it But first he satisfied Ayisha by giving loud orders to every one to watch theher 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 hih and me to prove his words Ali Baba kept the Bishareen