The Lion of Petra

other of Sn

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

urbance we suffered was from the lady Ayisha, who insisted that the black-faced prisoner was hers, camel and all, and that he sho

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 behin

eague in some way with the British authorities, it would be all up with our prospect of deceiving folk in future. There wa

id 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.

sweet-water well could possibly be, or ever could have been. It was pretty obvious that all he wanted w

. He hadn't a coin or a thing except the clothes he wo

ch man," he urged. "Let me go and he

I, being spies in the government service, on the other hand, are men

d instantly. "He who serves the

ow that a certain man is pretending to be Ali Higg. Thus you will do the government a great service,

is no well out here.

ursuit 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 u

hardship, meant to them no more than temporary inconvenience. But to have asked them to let a prisoner escape, and submit to

le 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

Baba and his gang laughed derisively, and no t

ed in my ear; and as it turned out in the en

men to follow us for several miles. They fired about twenty shots when we were well out of r

of League of Nations and mandates and whatnot it is hard enough in all conscience for brave villagers with muskets to

l 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 wa

im'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 w

en 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 ou

er women," he asserted piously. "It

nous 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 t

h 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 inst

o 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

her all those princely Indian terrorists added together could,

he 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 thing

eunuchs hadn't lost that prisoner we

e 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 impud

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 purchase

and as that only amused her she ordered him about more than any one, the others aiding and a

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 Gr

on that point-there is no doubt whatever about the East. There it is the woman who

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 t

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 motio

any such woman as Ayisha should establish a claim on him; and he did not quite realize the full extent of Grim's resourcefulness

ll them his! Wallahi! I would laugh to see the Lion of Petr

the gang

mined. 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

old her on one occasion when she ma

t such

der her ribs, and who sh

he always managed to keep just clear of the poin

r return to Petra in case they should offer unacceptable advice. And it may be they would have looked favorably on the chance to transfer all

importunate about it that, after consulting Grim, I gave her some boric powder. The next morning Grim

s! He and I have played with death a dozen times, but I never kne

y kind of mischief, and constantly egged her on, old Ali Baba spent half of each day in the tent

efeat thy neighbor in all ways whenever possible

o 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

ached the sun-baked railway-line that drags its rusty lengt

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 dist

d 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;

he had aimed for, and pitched camp soon after dawn within fifty yards of the track. There was no water in th

paths do in other lands. Where there is a rock, or some peculiar conformation of the ground to attract attention, men

ling wilderness that was doubtless green at certain seasons of the year, but now was bone-dry and glittering with flakes of mica. Cl

im refused to let them; whereat Ayisha went into a shrewish rage, and ordered her four men to take up her te

it was interesting to hear him curse the Prophet sotto voce while pretending to vie with those robbers in fervid protestat

on as many animal-shaped gods with as many arms and teeth as a Bengali could have

of that lady's prospects, so far as his particular formula could do it. I jotted down some of his suggestions to the g

ful 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

eating to watch, and Grim went into his tent to use field-glasses without being seen. It is not

ey seemed to take it for granted that we were friends, for we were in full view and far outnumber

. 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 b

They dismounted from their camels, and, after bowing to her as respectfully as any lord of the des

e went only as far as the railway track, and waited; to have gone a step farther would have made them think themselves