g silence. "Do you remember, Gaston?" asked Magin. "It
was here we first had the good fortune to meet--not quite three weeks
ago."

"I remember," answered Gaston, keeping his eye on the mouth of the tank
he was filling, "that I was the one who wished you peace, Monsieur; and
that no one asked who you were or where you were going."

Magin yawned.

"Well, you seem to have satisfied yourself now on those important
points. I might add, however, for your further information, that I think
I shall not go to Bund-i-Kir, which looks too peaceful to disturb at
this matinal hour, but there--on the western shore of the Ab-i-Shuteit.
And that reminds me. I still have to pay you the rest of my ticket."

He reached forward and laid a little pile of gold on Gaston's seat.
Gaston, watching out of the corner of his eye as he poured gasolene, saw
that there were more than five napoleons in that pile. There were at
least ten.

"What would you say, Monsieur," he asked slowly, emptying his tin, "if I
were to take you instead to Sheleilieh--where there are still a few of
the English?"

"I would say, my good Gaston, that you had more courage than I thought.
By the way," he went on casually, "what is this?"

He reached forward again toward Gaston's seat, where lay the Bakhtiari's
present. Gaston dropped his tin and made a snatch at it. But Magin was
too quick for him. He retreated to his place at the stern of the boat,
where he drew the knife out of its sheath.

"Sharp, too!" he commented, with a smile at Gaston. "And my revolver is
gone!"

Gaston, very pale, stepped to his seat.

"That, Monsieur, was given me by my Bakhtiari brother-in-law--to take to
the war. When he found I had not the courage to go, he ran away from
me."

"But you thought there might be more than one way to make war, eh? Well,
I at least am not an Apache. Perhaps the sharks will know what to do
with it." The blade glittered in the brightening air and splashed out of
sight. And Magin, folding his arms, smiled again at Gaston. "Another
object of virtue for the safe custody of the Karun!"

"But not all!" cried Gaston thickly, seizing the little pile of gold
beside him and flinging it after the knife.

Magin's smile broadened.

"Have you not forgotten something, Gaston?"

"But certainly not, Monsieur," he replied, putting his hand into his
pocket. The next moment a second shower of gold caught the light. And
where the little circles of ripples widened in the