given him his chance; because of my words men already
fear him. Why doesn't he plunder, then, and run to his own home?
Why doesn't he talk with me and let me tell him what to do next?
I know all these people--all their villages--everything!"

"All women know too much, yet never what is needful," Ali
Baba answered.

He was frankly jubilant. Son and grandson of robbers by
profession, father and grandfather of educated thieves, life
meant lawlessness to him, and he could see nothing but honest
pleasure and the chance of profit in Grim's predicament. He loved
Grim, as all Arabs do love the foreigner who understands them,
deploring nothing except that unintelligible loyalty to a Western
code of morals that according to Ali Baba's lights consisted of
pure foolishness. And now, as he saw it, Grim stood committed to
a course that could only lead to trickery. And all trickery must
pave the way for plunder. And plundering was fun.

His sons and grandsons in varying degree saw matters from the old
man's viewpoint, although, having had rather less experience of
it, they were not quite so confident of Grim's generalship; but
they made up for that by perfectly dog-like devotion to "the old
man, their father," whose word and whose interpretation of the
Koran was the only law they knew.

What tickled their fancy most was Ali Baba's cleverness in egging
on Ayisha to advertise Grim as Ali Higg. Again and again on the
march that day, in spite of the grilling heat, and thirst and
flies, they burst into roars of laughter over it, chaffing
Ayisha's four men unmercifully.

And after a while Mahommed, the youngest of Ali Baba's sons,
regarded by all the others as the poet of the band and therefore
the least responsible and most to be humored in his whims, made
up a song about it all. It called for something more than
boisterous spirits; it needed the fire of enthusiasm and
ingrained pluck to set them all singing behind him in despite of
the desert heat and the dazzling, bleak, unwatered view. They
sang the louder in defiance of the elements.

"Lord of the desert is Ali Higg!
_Akbar! Akbar!_ *
Lord of the gardens of grape and fig.
_Akbar! Akbar!_
Lord of the palm and clustered date.
_Mishmish,_** olive and water sate
Hunger and thirst in Ali's gate!
_Akbar! Akbar! Akbar Ali Higg!_

"Lion of lions and lord of lords!
_Akbar! Akbar!_
Chief of lances, prince of swords!
_Akbar!