on the side next the street, and some one
had laid a lot of bundles of odds and ends against it; lying
down, we could look out between those without any risk of being
seen from below, but Goodenough made the Sikhs keep well in the
background and only we three peered over the edge. About two
hundred yards in front of us the Dome of the Rock glistened in
the morning sun above the intervening roofs. The street was
almost deserted, although the guards at either end had been
removed for fear of scaring away the conspirators. We watched
for about twenty minutes before any one passed but occasional
beggars, some of whom stopped to wonder why oranges should stand
on sale outside a door with nobody in charge of them. Three
separate individuals glanced right and left and then helped
themselves pretty liberally from the baskets.

But at last there came five donkeys very heavily loaded with
oranges and raisins, in charge of six men, which was a more than
liberal allowance. When they stopped at the little stone house
in front of us there was another thing noticeable; instead of
hitting the donkeys hard on the nose with a thick club, which is
the usual way of calling a halt in Palestine, they went to the
heads and stopped them reasonably gently. So, although all six
men were dressed to resemble peasants, they were certainly
nothing of the kind.

Nor were they such wide-awake conspirators as they believed
themselves, for they were not in the least suspicious of six
other men, also dressed as peasants, who followed them up-street,
and sat down in full view with their backs against a wall. Yet I
could see quite plainly the scabbard of a bayonet projecting
through a hole in the ragged cloak of the nearest of those
casual wayfarers.

They had to knock several minutes before the door opened
gingerly; then they off-loaded the donkeys, and it took two men
to carry each basketful, with a third lending a hand in case of
accident. Only one man went back with the donkeys, and two of
the casual loafers against the wall got up to saunter after him;
the other five honest merchants went inside, and we heard the
bolt shoot into its iron slot behind them.

"How about it, Grim?" asked Goodenough then.

"Ready, sir. Will you give the order?"

We filed in a hurry down the steps into the alley, ran in a zig-
zag down three passages, and reached another alley with narrow
door at its end that faced the street. Grim had made every
pre