ngine. My best chance was to make them believe that the
engine is difficult to understand. Because of your knowledge
they now feel independent of me. So I must yield to them in
everything. And if they force me to swear on a Bible, and on my
father's honour, and in the name of God, that I will not give
evidence against them, I shall have to swear."

"An oath given under compulsion--" I began. But he laughed
cynically.

"Ah! You do not know this land--these folk, effendi. If I were
to break such an oath as that, they would burn my house, steal my
cattle, ravish my wife, and hunt me to the death. If I ran away
to America, Arabs in Chicago and New York would continue the
hunt. This is a land where an oath is binding, unless you are
the stronger. I am weak--an unimportant person."

"What is your business?" I asked.

"There is no business for a man like me. The regulations forbid
commerce in the only goods for which there is a real demand
among Bedouins."

"So you're a smuggler, eh?"

He laughed, between pride and caution, and changed the subject.

"I shall do what they order me, effendi. I think they will keep
my boat over there to bring you back again. But when I get back
the Sikhs will arrest me. So I ask you to bear me witness that I
was compelled by threats and force to go with these people. In
that way, with a little ingenuity--that is to say, the ingenious
use of piastras--perhaps I can contrive to get out of the
difficulty without being punished by both Arabs and British."

I promised to tell no more than I had seen and heard. On the
strength of that we became as fast friends as suspicion
permitted. We trusted each other, because we more or less had
to, like a couple of thieves "on the lam." It suited me. He was
a very good interpreter and slavishly anxious to please. But I
lived to regret it later. When my evidence had cleared him of
collusion in the raid, he chose on the strength of that to claim
me as his friend for life. He turned up in the United States and
tried to live on his wits. I had to pay a lawyer to defend him
in Federal Court. He writes me piously pathetic letters from
Leavenworth Penitentiary. And when he gets out I suppose I
shall have to befriend him again. However, at the moment, he
was useful.

It was just dawn when old Anazeh ran the launch into a cove
between high rocks. Ahmed let out a shriek of anguish at the
violence done the hull. They pitched the she