sed. But he did nothing of the sort. He was as frank
as she was, and did his fencing, as you might say, with a club.

"The desert is full of women!" he told her on one occasion when
she made more than usually open overtures.

"But not such as I am!"

"A woman's heart lies under her ribs, and who shall read it?"
he answered.

"A pig can read some things!" she retorted; for he always managed
to keep just clear of the point where frankness might have merged
into poetry.

Her own four armed attendants seemed to take the whole affair
rather speculatively. She was probably in position to have them
crucified on her return to Petra in case they should offer
unacceptable advice. And it may be they would have looked
favorably on the chance to transfer allegiance from Ali Higg to
Grim, who had crucified nobody yet; as Ayisha's servants they
would doubtless go with her, should she change owners.

She asked me repeatedly for love potions, to be slipped into
Grim's food or into his drink, and was so importunate about it
that, after consulting Grim, I gave her some boric powder. The
next morning Grim told her that her eyes were like a young
gazelle's, so my reputation as a _hakim_ rose several degrees.

"Is he mad?" growled Narayan Singh. "Ah, each man has his
weakness! He and I have played with death a dozen times, but I
never knew him lose his head. So he is woman-crazed? What next,
I wonder!"

The girl had lots of encouragement, for, not counting the younger
men, who were hell bent for any kind of mischief, and constantly
egged her on, old Ali Baba spent half of each day in the tent
expounding to Grim the ethics of such situations; and they were
as simple as the code of Moses.

"Love thy neighbor's wife if she will let you. Defeat thy
neighbor in all ways whenever possible. On these two hang all
amusement and prosperity."

And Grim was much too wise to pretend to Ali Baba any other
motive than expedience. It would not have paid to take the old
rascal too much into his confidence, because most Arabs overplay
their hand; but he did drop a hint or two; and from what he told
me I should say it was Ayisha's persistent love-making that
provided the first suggestion of a plan in his mind for bringing
Ali Higg to terms.

But I'm sure the plan did not really take shape until we reached
the sun-baked railway-line that drags its rusty length behind
wild hills all the way from Damascus down to Mecca.

Some say that the very