mean?" I asked.

"I wear mine out of compliment to him--not that I have not
always the right to wear it. It is the Ichwan head-dress.
It is highly significant."

"Of what?"

He hesitated for a moment, and then seemed to make up his mind
that it did not much matter what he might divulge to an ignorant
stranger soon to return to the United States.

"It is difficult to explain. You Americans know so little of our
politics. It is significant, I might say, of the New Arabia--
Arabia for the Arabs. The great ben Saoud, who is a relative of
this man, is an Arabian chieftain who has welded most of Arabia
into one, and now challenges King Hussein of Mecca for the
caliphate. Hussein is only kept on his throne by British gold,
paid to him from India. Ben Saoud also receives a subsidy from
the British, who must continue to pay it, because otherwise ben
Saoud will attack Hussein and overwhelm him. That, it is
believed, would mean a rising of all the Moslem world against
their rulers--in Africa--Asia--India--Java--everywhere. It began
as a religious movement. It is now political--although it is
held together by religious zeal. You might say that the Ichwans
are the modern Protestants of Islam. They are fanatical. The
world has never seen such fanaticism, and the movement spreads
day by day."

"You don't look like a fanatic," I said, and he laughed again.

"I? God forbid! But I am a politician; and to succeed a
politician must have friends among all parties. My one ambition
is to see all Arabs united in an independent state reaching from
this coast to the Persian Gulf. To that end I devote my energy.
I use all means available--including money paid me by the French,
who have no intention of permitting any such development if they
can help it."

"And the British?"

"For the present we must make use of them also. But their yoke
must go, eventually."

"Then if America had accepted the Near East mandate, you would
have used us in the same way?"

"Certainly. That would have been the easiest way, because
America understands little or nothing of our politics. America's
money--America's schools and hospitals--America's war munitions--
and then good-bye. I am willing to use all means--all methods to
the one end--Arabia for the Arabs. After that I am willing to
retire into oblivion."

Nevertheless, ben Nazir did not convince me that he was an
altruist who had no private ends to serve. There was an
avar