The Lion of Petra

in the Moonlight, Co

in the whole range of phantasmagoria. We looked like a string of glistening ghosts accompanied by goblins of a fourth dimension mocking us,

she really wanted it. So she ranged alongside, and chiefly because I was curious and chose to be amused, but partly because o

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

houri with her hand in mine! Il-hamd'ul-illah!* I Enter, b

. "Father of bristl

same Ayisha I have loved in secret all these burning days! I, who had resolved that g

on of an Afghan pig! Let me go,

on the sky's dull cheek! Such loveliness as thine, beloved, needs a warrior to worsh

t 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 stan

e," she answered; but she laughed as she sai

rd to release it she failed. "Boasts should be put to the test, beloved! We of the North have

of thoughtfulness. You know those overtones of a bell that go fading away into the infinite, in

ans are a

too, and Afghans say the

waste, I myself would be the very first victim. Thy love, I think, w

the feet of jewelers until they beg you to take their costliest! Covet rubies, and I will plunder them from the e

u speak like

re but chaff blown along the wind of great accomplishment. Wi

. She waited about a m

igg?" she as

o down beneath the feet of elephants so

der your carcass thrown to the vultures. Words first, since your boastings are all words! I say that, for a

e me slay him for a word of prais

t not want

le, then-a ruin of a man, f

e plea

lousy! I am a man of few words but sudden deeds! Is there a man who stand

ed me-almost made me believe that his private agreemen

ht to have been born two or three hundred years ago as, in fact, according to his reincarnating creed, he was. Pe

ery 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 squa

halted to let the line close, and we swarmed around him like a herd of steers th

me, and what with Grim's shouting to get the tangle straightened, and our all trying to obey at

osts from the rear. They resembled a drag-net, drawing us in the direction of Petra, and the only unblocked segment of the circle w

was a question whether he would be able to get control before a disaster happened. I said nothing and did nothing but kept fairly clos

n 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 surro

d like ant-heaps, three figures emerged on camels, apparently all alone and unsupported. The one in the middl

se sons and grandsons obeyed his order as efficiently as he did Grim's. They made a

heeled and charged another segment of the circle, widening

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 t

noiseless; for wherever Ali Baba charged the enemy drew off,

isoners," Grim said to me at last. "But I

m seemed in command of the other side. At the moment I suspected that Grim was one of those officers who are splendid at

ng in absolute control, had not the lot of us burst through the cir

s she leaned out of the shibrayah to watch. It caught her under the jawbone, so t

. "Tell 'em your name Walla

at, that might have been audible thirty

w your brains out

rry as all desert people can. And after she had called three

-a! O A

and at that the rider of the mi

t of it-in tens and twentie

ither did we. The three lone individ

id Grim. "Now

ad thought of it in that sudden crisis, or Ali Baba who had understood so swif

nd we from the other-we swooped on the three. And there were nine o

one of Ali Baba's sons was grazed. But in another second we had captured two men and a woman, and i

I saw Grim take the woman's rifle away. She looked more surprised than any one I have ever seen-more s

plain English. "Call 'em off, or I'l

ean? Ali? Ali Higg? You h

those men off," Grim answered; and his pistol demonstr

cried out that Ali Higg was there

lish? Since when? Oh, I must be mad! You are not

oke in Arabic: "Ayisha, wha

etween the curtains of the shibriyah, and I saw

e her friend is when she is afraid or distracted by doubt. At all ot

had happened, and Ali Baba's answering them with threats if they dared disobey and come closer. The

uf, the prisoner we had made at the oasis, tried to talk to them, but they would not listen to him; the drama was too ab

ke a man, in the regular Bedouin cloak and head-gear, with a bandolier full of cartridge

years old, although that much was hard guessing in the moonlight; for the rest, sh

bout sex. I'm in a tight place, and you'll obey orders or

ming with me

cort enough. Who c

I

who's at the he

him b

two or three of Ali Baba's men went off to obey. "Now, Jael, you do the talking. Understand me, though; this pistol

on

Higg's spy brought

lsewhere. Raid follow

on't need you at Petr

e ten seconds before

this raid

aan."

ndent. The tribes meet there and

credible. Now, observe-I pas

ded it

t once to that next oasis on the way to El-Maan, and to wait there for yourself and Ali Higg, to wait

es

you will die immedi

es

take owing to the darkness, and that Ali Higg is in a great rage, and he had better

shall see your husband in Petra. Disobey by as much as a wo

an it? You wil

es

but you are the greatest madman of them all," she a

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

at I laughed. She thought I laughed at her in cold-blooded delight at the prospect o

blooded. I was laughing at myself, who m

ow whether I would have shot her; sometimes I think yes, sometimes no. My guess is that I would have failed to do it, a

o 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

he objected. "Ya sit Jael,* there is wrath

f a mistake in the darkness. Good camels were killed. He is more enrage

llah!

the moonlight, communing with Allah. Better

o be here ahead of

a. H

! I call these men to witness I have given the ord

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

ahim ben Ah had formed into four long lines and ridden away westward,

ty men," he announce

Petra can't h