ture. There was danger enough
as it was that one of Ali Baba's men might make some chance
remark that would inform Ayisha or her escort.

Grim decided finally to let the man escape and gave Narayan Singh
and me instructions how to do it. But first he satisfied Ayisha
by giving loud orders to every one to watch the man, and by
telling her that he didn't care what she did with him after we
reached Petra. Then, late in the afternoon, when Mujrim had
rounded up the camels, a dispute was intentionally started about
an old well, and whether a good trail to the southward did not
make a circuit past it. The prisoner was asked, and he said he
knew the well. Grim called him a father of lies, which he
certainly was, and sent him off on the worst of the camels
between Narayan Singh and me to prove his words. Ali Baba kept
the Bishareen.

He led us a long way out into the desert among lumpy dunes in
which the salt lay in strata, and where no sweet-water well could
possibly be, or ever could have been. It was pretty obvious that
all he wanted was a chance to escape from us, and he began
offering bribes the minute we were out of sight of the camp.

The bribes were all in the nature of promises, however. He hadn't
a coin or a thing except the clothes he wore, Ali Baba's gang
having attended to that thoroughly.

"The wool-merchant--my master--is a rich man," he urged. "Let me
go and he will be your friend for ever after."

"We have no need of friends," Narayan Singh answered. "This man
and I, being spies in the government service, on the other hand,
are men whose friendship is of value. You can serve us in a
certain matter."

"Then give me money!" he retorted instantly. "He who serves the
government nowadays receives pay."

"The way to receive pay," said I, "is to take this letter to the
governor of Hebron, who will then know that a certain man is
pretending to be Ali Higg. Thus you will do the government a
great service, and may receive the difference in price between
the Bishareen camel and that mean brute you ride now."

"We waste time. There is no well out here. Give me the letter!"

He was gone in a minute, headed straight for Hebron, and Narayan
Singh and I fired several shots in the air to let Ayisha know
what a desperate pursuit we had engaged in. When we rode into
camp again, trying to look shamefaced, they had about finished
packing up, so Grim had time to call us terrible names for
Ayisha's benefit--names that i