Albert Payson Terhune

“ From beyond the crest of this hillock came the droning chant of:
"Din—Din! Muhammed Din!" ("For the Faith! For Islam!") ever swelling closer.
The laborers and the dozen soldiers were already trotting up the hill's hither side to welcome the oncomers.
With a dash, Kirby was among his erstwhile workers and guards, pushing past them and making at headlong speed for the hillcrest. In thirty seconds he was at the summit, the ashen-faced Najib toiling along prayerfully in his wake. ”

“ The Welee eyed his opponent with a new look—a look in which rage was now mingled with something very like bewilderment.
"It is known," reiterated Kirby. "It is known to all folk that Allah endows His saints upon earth with miraculous powers. But it is also known to all folk that Allah doth not waste such power upon the Feringhee. Therefore, when I perform miracles before you, will it not be proof that I am but the unworthy and helpless instrument in the hands of Allah—through his beloved handmaiden, Fathma?" ”

“ It reminds me of the dear old days when I used to rake autumn leaves and make bonfires of them."
"Howaji!" spoke up Najib, with tearful impatience. "I ask you if it is a time and also a season for these sad memories of home. I request to know, is it? We are in peril to lose all. There is perhaps a peril to the life as well. And you talk sweetly of tobacco!"
"No," mildly corrected Kirb, "I talk of the stuff in these Cairene cigarettes. Don't take the precious name of tobacco in vain by——"
"But we are in a danger!" wailed Najib. "The Welee——"
"That's so," assented Kirby. ”

“ It is said that in the Orient two stray dogs do not meet to fight without first swapping compliments. It is certain that no two humans—be their meeting never so urgent or hostile—fail to observe this world-old usage. It costs nothing—except time. And time is the one commodity wherein every Oriental is rich.
"You have desecrated the shrine of a saint," pursued the Welee, courtesy being sated, "and I am come hither to stop——"
"So you said yesterday," returned Kirby, with real urbanity. ”

“ Every man among the miners and the soldiers was familiar with the sight of the packages. They were used for holding ore samples. In such packets the men had again and again seen Kirby wrap the silvery-white specimens of pulverized antimony.
"These," intoned the American, waving the handful of papers at the Welee, "are pinches of the dust and the crushed metal that I dig from the shrine of the blessed Fathma. Thine own brethren will bear me out in this. An hundred times they have beheld me fill the paper squares with such dust. ”

“ The villagers, the soldiers, the laborers gazed upon him with the awed delight that Eastern onlookers ever glean from such attacks. Even the Welee looked at him, irresolute, the fanatic fire ebbing a little from his withered and unwashed face. ”

“ If the dust he sprinkleth doth not change, and if the dust thou sprinklest doth become a cloud of snow, he shall know that thou art my messenger and he shall obey my will, and all my people shall obey my will and shall hinder thy labors no more, lest in my wrath I prevail upon Allah to send such snow throughout the land, to blast the pastures, even as snow has ever blasted the summit of Hermon. ”

“ Najib's the only one of the crew who has too much sense to believe in every word of the Welee's bugaboo story. And he's scared stiff; so he isn't much use to me. I try to keep his pluck up and to impress the others by not seeming to take the thing seriously. But it's about the seriousest thing in the world,
I've only one hope left, as a matter of fact. And that hope is so fantastic it wouldn't he a hope at all anywhere except in Syria—where everything is fantastic. It's a fifty-to-one shot. But I've made my arrangements to play it. In the meantime——
Logan Kirby laid down his fountain pen. ”

“ Miracle!" groaned the crowd. "The spouse of Ali hath spoken—and through a Feringhee! It is as he said."
"It is a lie! A trick!" stormed the Welee.
But for once no one heeded him. A miracle is a miracle, whoever performs it. And a miracle had been performed. The miners knew well that a pinch of antimony powder does not change to a double handful of snow through washing. The other fellaheen knew nothing of antimony nor of chemistry. But they knew snow—the soggy, wet, sticky snow of Syrian mountaintops. And, seeing, they believed.
Again Kirby caught up the ghoola. ”

“ When he removed his fingers from around the handle, there was no sign of knife hilt, knife blade, nor wound.
"Allah sa-id!" gasped the onlookers again, many of them falling face downward on the earth and moaning forth Koran texts and prayers.
"It is well!" broke in Kirby, with difficulty steadying his voice again into the singsong. "It is well! None doubted the holiness of the Welee nor his Heaven-sent power to do things which are impossible to mere mortals such as we. The spouse of Ali foretold that he would do so. She told me he would spout forth flame and would drive a knife to his heart. ”

“ Brothers, ye have oft and again washed this powder for me, to cleanse it from earth stains. Bear my witness, hath the water changed it in any way?"
"Lla!" (No!) , negatived the workers, in ragged chorus, growing more and more impatient.
"Good!" approved Kirby. "Thus spake Fathma, the blessed among women: 'Sprinkle water upon this dust of mine, before the eyes of my servant, the holy Welee. And give him also of the dust, that he, too, may sprinkle it with water. ”

“ He explained to the fellaheen laborers and the soldiers that we were digging in the exact locality where Fathma, favorite wife of Ali, the Lion of Allah, was buried. She is a Moslem saint, and to disturb her bones, he assured my men, would let loose upon the desecrators a horde of djinni and afrits and similar Oriental hobgoblins who would torture them to death and then burn their souls.
Don't laugh. It isn't a joke. Or if it is my natives don't know it. To a man, they knocked off work. ”

“ Kirby glanced downward. To the wrist, his hand that manipulated the wet powder was engulfed in a snowy substance that glittered white in the sunset.
"Allah!" quavered the awed crowd. "Allah hu akbar!"
To all intents and purposes, the powder had in a few seconds become transformed into a little snowdrift of thirty times its original bulk. At least, to men who have seen no more of such phenomena than has the average Syrian, it was indubitable and flawless snow.
"Miracle! ”

“ For the present they graciously remain and gobble full rations, but they don't do one lick of work. And if we don't get off our next shipment this week we lose the biggest customer we have—a Damascus firm that takes seventy per cent of our output and is flirting with a German syndicate which is trying to undersell us and can't. Najib has known the Welee in other days. He is positive our German competitors have bribed the holy man to stir up this row. ”

“ But this time I had put the blue one in a white paper and——"
"But, Howaji!" babbled Najib. "They did not arouse hell fight within me! Oh, of an assuredly, the glorified Fathma hath——"
"You mixed the two powders before you swallowed them. The Welee swallowed them before he mixed them. That's all the difference. Just the trifling difference between a glass of soda water and a volcano. You see, I——"
"I see, Howaji," murmured Najib in solemn veneration. "And I see that the American Bible text is brought to pass: 'One man's meat is better than two in the bush ”

“ For miracles are things not seen every day, even in Syria. And there was every prospect of at least one such manifestation. Perhaps of two. The Welee noted the change in his followers' mental attitude, and he strove hotly to counteract it. ”

“ You're the only one of my kin who is still on top of the earth. And you were mighty good to me—at least, until I decided to keep on in the school of mines instead of going into the law school as you wanted me to. ”