Talbot Mundy

“ WE DID not have to wait long for Ali Baba, Mujrim and the camels, for they had not been fools enough to dawdle, with a hundred and fifty balked freebooters within rifle-shot, whose resilient pride was likely to breed anger. You can’t lead camels any more than horses as fast as you can ride them; unless stampeded they tow logily; but the fact that two or three dozen mounted Arabs had elected to follow along behind and watch from a safe distance what might happen to the train had lent Ali Baba wings. ”

“ It was music that suited our mood, harmonizing perfectly with the solemn marvel of a desert sunset and the velvety, cool silence of the starlit night.
“That man Yussuf had me guessing,” he said at last. “I couldn’t place him. Knew his face, but that was all. Then she whispered something about his being a wind that carries smells from one village to the next and back again, spying against both sides at the same time. ”

“ A woman afraid is worse than a man with a dagger in the dark. Suppose she bolts to Ali Higg and lays information against us—what then?”
I tried to argue him out of his anxiety, because I wanted to sleep when my turn came. My habit of never looking for trouble is a lovely one until trouble starts; but the Sikh, being only a heathen, could not be persuaded; so I had to promise him that, turn about, four hours on and four off, he and I would watch Ayisha faithfully until such time as Grim should make other disposition of our services or there should be no more need. ”

“ Because we’re not dealing with a wise man; he’s only clever and drastic. If we wait, word’s bound to reach him that some one’s posing as himself, and he’ll sally forth to make an example of us—do a good job of it, too!
“I’d hate to be caught out in the desert with twenty men by Ali Higg! He’s a riproaring typhoon. But the worst typhoon the world ever saw had a soft spot in the middle.
“You know what the Arabs say? ‘A dog can scratch fleas, but not worms in his belly!’ We’ve got to be worms in the belly of Ali Higg, and where the man is there will his belly be also. ”

“ Did they not with their own eyes see us scoot for Petra? And who else than the redoubtable Ali Higg would be likely to own such a string of splendid camels—he who could take what he coveted, and never coveted anything except the best?
The evidence of identity was strong enough for a judge and jury. Men have been hanged in America on less. ”

“ In vain the man protested. He did not believe for a moment that Grim was not Ali Higg, and he felt sure that he was being kidnaped for some frightful fate, although Grim’s mildness of demeanor must have puzzled him; for according to accounts the real Lion of Petra was a roaring beast.
Grim assigned two men to watch him, and gave the order to strike camp, refusing to listen to any further argument. And since the man’s camels were too exhausted to march at once, he ordered all three left behind at the oasis and put the prisoner on one of our baggage animals. ”

“ Almost every one in the outfit had a different view of the situation, although all agreed that Grim was the man to stay with. Narayan Singh, growling in my ear incessantly, scented intrigue, and his Sikh blood tingled at the thought; he began to look more tolerantly on Ayisha as a mere instrument whom Grim would find some chance of using.
“For the cleverest woman whom the —— ever sent to ruin men is after all but a lie that engulfs the liar. I know that man Jimgrim. She will dig a pit, but he will not fall into it. It may be that we shall all die together, but what of that?” ”

“ You know that warm glow of vanity that sweeps over you when another fellow concedes your plan to be better than his? It’s rather like the effect of certain drugs—a highly agreeable sensation while it lasts. ”

“ Your honor is pleased to joke! You will invade Palestine as far as Jaffa?”
“For those who live under British protection and yet spy against the British are not so well treated by them as those who spy on their behalf.”
“Maybe. When they are caught! When they have caught a fox they may skin him.”
“And I am not Ali Higg, the Lion of Petra.
“Then who in the name of the Prophet are you, with the Lion’s wife at your side?”
“That is none of your business. You come back to Petra with me. No, not your men; they go on. You alone. I have spoken.” ”

“ Can we fight him and his two hundred?”
“Fighting is a fool’s game ten times out of nine,” he answered. “That’s to say, it’s always a fool who starts the fight. The wise man waits until fighting is the only resource that’s left to him.” ”

“ Jimgrim Ali Higg!”
It suited their sense of humor finely to announce to the wind and the kites that Grim, the strict, straight, ethical American was a ravisher of virgins and slitter of offenseless throats, who knew no mercy—a man without law in this world or prospect of peace in the next.
WHEN we reached an oasis about noon—sweet water and thirty or forty palm-trees—and simply had to camp there because the camels were exhausted after a night and half a day of strenuous marching, they were still so full of high spirits that they had to work them off somehow ”

“ Grim chuckled.
“Wonder what Ali Higg will say when he’s confronted by Ali Higg”
“Wonder what he’ll do, you mean, don’t you!”
“What d’you keep looking back for?”
“Just keeping tabs on Ayisha.”
“No need to worry about her. Now we've got Yussuf on our string it’s a cinch we can use her whichever way the cat jumps. She’ll be afraid he’ll tell tales about her.”
“——!” I said. “It seems to me this whole procession’s crazy! The best we’ve got with us is a gang of professional thieves.
“The farther we go the more we load up with sure-fire traitors. First Ayisha; she’d cut throats at so much per. ”