his nose at me for several
minutes without speaking. You could have guessed just as easily
what an alligator was thinking about, and I tried to emulate him,
pretending to go off into the brown study that the Turks call
kaif, out of which it is considered bad manners to disturb your
best friend, let alone a stranger. But manners proved to be no
barrier in his case.

He began talking to me in Arabic--directly at me, slowly and
deliberately, but I did not understand very much of it and it was
not difficult to pretend I did not hear. However, Suliman was in
different case; the boy began to get very restless under the
monolog, and I tugged at his back hair more than once to remind
him of the part he had to play.

Discovering that the Arabic took no effect on me, the alligator
person changed to French.

"They speak French in Damascus. I know you are not deaf. You
are a spy. I know your name. I know what your business was
before you came here. I know why you want to see the staff-
captain. You have a letter for him; I know what is in it. No
use trying to deceive me; I have ways of my own of discovering
things. Do you know what happens to spies who refuse to answer
my questions? They are attended to. Quite simple. They receive
attention. Nobody hears of them again.

"There are drains in Jerusalem--big, dark, smelly, ancient, full
of rats--very useful drains. You think the Staff-Captain Ali
Mirza will protect you. At a word from me he will make the
request that you receive immediate attention. You will disappear
down a drain, where even Allah will forget that you ever existed.
Staff-Captain Ali Mirza is my old friend. Better let me see
that letter."

I felt like laughing at the drain threats although Suliman was
still shivering from the effect of the earlier Arabic version.
But the statement that he knew the real Ali Mirza might be true,
in which case Grim's disguise was not going to last long.
However, the fact that he had not yet seen through my disguise
was some comfort. The wish being father of the thought, I
decided he was bluffing first and last. But he had not finished
yet. He tried me in English.

"The captain will give that letter to me in any case. It is
intended for me. I have other business now, and wish to save
time, so give it to me at once. Here, I will give you ten
piastres for it."

He pulled out a purse and unfolded a ten-piastre note. I took no
notice. He shook it f