arayan Singh took delight
in the brat's iniquities, seeing precocious intelligence where
other folk denounced hereditary vice. I had a scar on my thumb
where the little beast had bitten me on one occasion when I did
not dare yell or retaliate, and, along with the majority, I
condemned him cordially.

"Who's his friend?" asked Grim.

"Abdullah."

Now Abdullah was worse than Suliman. He had no friends at all,
anywhere, that anybody knew of. Possibly nine years old, he had
picked up all the evil that a boy can learn behind the lines of a
beaten Turkish army officered by Germans--which is almost the
absolute of evil--and had added that to natural depravity.

"Let Abdullah come," said Grim. "But beat Suliman first of all
for weeping. Don't hit him with your hand, Narayan Singh, for
that might hurt his feelings. Use a stick, and give him a grown
man's beating."

_"Atcha, sahib."_

Two minutes later yells like a hungry bobcat's gave notice to
whom it might concern that the Sikh was carrying out the letter
of his orders. It was good music. Nevertheless, quite a little of
the prospect was spoiled for me by the thought of keeping company
with those two Jerusalem guttersnipes. I would have remonstrated,
only for conviction, born of experience, that passengers
shouldn't try to run the ship.

"What shall I pack?" I asked.

"Nothing," Grim answered. "Stick a toothbrush in your pocket.
I've got soap, but you'll have small chance to use it."

"You said I can't go as a white man."

"True. We'll fix you up at Hebron. The Arabs have scads of
proverbs," he answered, lighting a cigarette with a gesture
peculiar to him at times when he is using words to hide his
thoughts. "One of the best is: `Conceal thy tenets, thy treasure,
and thy traveling.'

"The Hebron road is not the road to Petra. We're going to
joy-ride in the wrong direction, and leave Jerusalem guessing."

Five minutes later Grim and I were on the back seat of a Ford
car, bowling along the Hebron road under the glorious gray walls
of Jerusalem; Narayan Singh and the two brats were enjoying our
dust in another car behind us. There being no luggage there was
nothing to excite passing curiosity, and we were not even envied
by the officers condemned to dull routine work in the city.

Grim was all smiles now, as he always is when he can leave the
alleged delights of civilization and meet life where he likes
it--out of bounds. He was still wearing his major's unifor