Affair in Araby

anyone who brin

h of Puck? "What fools these mortals be!" The biggest fools are the e

uestion that always exercised him was, wherein does the other fellow's weakness lie? It's a form of madness. Where a sane man looks for strength and honesty that he can yoke up with, a Yuss

hough his natural vein of shrewdness probably suggested the idea. Yussuf Dakmar, ready to believe all evil and no good of anyone, was convinced that he had to deal with

ve obliquity. There was nothing original or even unusual about it, except the circumstances, time and place. Green-goods men and blue-sky stock salesmen, race-course touts and sure-thing politicia

stolid and sleepy- looking on a camp-stool with hi

w that man?

"He looks like a Hindu thinking of reincarnation

me talk to you, and perhaps he will ask you afterward what

or a love-potion for the engine

at is it you are re

Ramsden, who dismissed yo

is nothing interesting

a fool who has paid my

reward h

" demanded Yussuf Dakmar, fixi

n early stage in the proceedings. "How can he have paid your fare as far as Damascus?

you keep your brains! It was I who bought the tickets. The fool gave me sufficient money for three f

ed to beg board an

. It is high time I married, and a fellow wi

dy else w

to find a wif

Jeremy answ

t you will make a good son-in-law. I take men as I find them, not as they represe

ke an axe with two heads. I

ard my friends, but woe betide the fool who bet

Good! Allah must have brought us two together for an evil purpose, being doubtless weary of the Le

il, do you? Tee-hee! That is an original idea, and there may be something in it. Let us

eremy. "The weight of his fist would driv

him; and the crows who devour that sort of meat won't worry as to whether he was killed according to ritual! He has

need i

, I must

makes me indispensable, doesn't it? And an i

e reach Haifa, ten or even twenty men will present themselves to do this business for me. Or, if I choose, I can use

the sort of man for you to trust. It wouldn't surprise me to learn t

ussuf Dakmar from calling in thugs to attack me either at Haifa or at some point between there and Damascus. Until then he had

hat fellow's real name. He is a sharp one, and he

you kn

u, so I didn't believe him; and he has no daughter; I've no use for a man who hasn't a good-looking daughter. What he's afraid of is that someone

to take you into my c

n; I'm listening. Tell

over the border and there won't be any British officers to interfere. Somewhere up the Lebanon Valley,

knows m

n the train between Haifa and Damascus who look like being accomplices of yours, he's going to murder Ramsden there and then, seize the letter, and make a jump for it! You see, he's one of those mean fellows-a

dent in a certain place, and we conversed. I pretended to agree with him for the sake of appearances, but I formed a very poor opinion of him. Well, s

lf who told me he is an Administration spy. If he suspects you already, he will suspect me for having talked with you, and will watch me; and if I try to p

ar as his bodyguard now that he has dismissed me; and if Omar should get killed, or disappear between here and Haifa, Ramsden would demand an escort of police. In fact, I thi

ou get it, that's the point-will

swered Jeremy. "The point is how

will pay you

y. I could have been hired for fifty shil

ought to be enough. I wi

l-time-fifty pairs of boots to clean for Ramsden-fifty is my lucky number. I have made forty-nine attempts to get married,

," answered Yussuf Dakmar. "

will give you the l

it as soon

wil

en if you like you can stay close

'" Jeremy quoted. "No, no, no! I will get the letter, for I know how. After I have it you may keep close to me

ince you are

re you, which God forbid, because I am a happy fellow and you look bilious, and you stole the letter for me because I promised to pay you in Damascus, but wouldn't give me the letter

that kind of man,"

I will steal the letter from Ramsden, and keep it until you pay me in Damascus. But I shan't sleep, and I shall watch you; and if I suspect you of making

you," said Yussuf Dakmar. "But how are you going to do

d I'll take it to him for a peace offering.

d get some! I have a little soporific in a paper packet that could be mixed with the whisky

stuff that looked and smelt enough like whisky to get by if there had been a label on the bottle. He poured a powder into it in Jeremy's pre

r while you attend to this," Yussuf Dakmar cautio

I will tell him there is a pretty Armenian girl in the car behi

now; I am a dangerous man. You have fortune

, and that Indian sees you peering into the compartment after havin

r behind. As soon as you have

Dakmar returning forward to spy on us. Grim put the doped whisky into his valise after a sniff at it, instead of throwing it out of the window at my suggestion; and a

s it is variously called. A rather common sickness is what Sir Richard Burton called Holylanditis and I've had it, as well as the croup and measles in my youth. So

there seemed to me something more profitable in view than to hang from a window and buy fish that undoubtedly had

ched Haifa in the evening, in time to watch the s