e a Sikh who strode in, with a dozen
ruffians at his tail and one-eyed Ali bringing up the rear. He
was one of the finest-looking Arabs I had ever seen, although
considerably past fifty and wrinkled so that his face was a net-
work of fine lines, out of which his big, dark eyes shone with
unaged intelligence. He was magnificently dressed, perhaps in
order to do me honour. Except for the fact that he carried a
modern military rifle on his elbow, in place of a shepherd's
crook or a spear, he looked like one of those historic worthies
who stalk through the pages of the Pentateuch. The dignity and
charm with which he bowed to me were inimitable--unconveyable.
But he turned on my Christian host like a prophet of old
rebuking blasphemy.

Arabic when the right man uses it sounds like tooth-for-a-tooth
law being laid down. Hebrew is all music and soft vowels;
Arabic all guttural consonants. The Sheikh Anazeh (there was no
doubt of his identity; they all kept calling him by name)
fulminated. The other bleated at him. I learned his name at
last. Ali of the one eye pressed forward, took him by the
sleeve, and called him Ahmed. Ali seemed to be adding persuasion
to Anazeh's threats. Whatever it was they were driving at, Ahmed
began to look like yielding. So, as I could not untangle more
than one brief sentence at a time from all those galloping
arguments, I pulled Ahmed away into a corner.

"What do they all want?" I asked him. "Tell me in ten words."
But he was not a brief man.

"They say the Sikhs are after them. They have put the stolen
sheep into their boats, as I told you they would, mister. Now
they order me to tow them with my motor-boat. But it cannot be
done, mister, it cannot be done! I tell them there is government
launch near Jericho that the Sikh patrol can use to overtake us.
I have a swift boat, but if I take in tow two other loaded boats
we shall be caught; and then who will save everything I have
from confiscation?"

"How close are the Sikhs?" I asked.

"God knows, mister! They can come fast. Unless I consent to let
them use my boat, Anazeh will order his men to kill me, and then
they will take the boat in any case! There is only one thing:
they must leave the sheep behind and all crowd into my boat, but
I cannot persuade them!"

At that moment another of Anazeh's party burst in through the
door. He evidently bore bad news. Catching sight of me, he
lowered his voice to a whisper,