arayan Singh.

She turned to me again.

"What does the sheikh of yours call himself?"

"Hajji Jimgrim bin Yazid of El-Abdeh."

"Jimgrim. Jimgrim. Where have I heard that name?"

"The stars have heard it," roared Narayan Singh loud enough for
the stars to hear him boast. "He has taken the Lion of Petra's
shape. He has taken his name. He has taken his wife. And now he
will take his den. _Akbar,_ Jimgrim Ali Higg of Petra!"

Mahommed the poet was riding two or three behind us in the line,
and heard that. He took the cue and began his song. In a minute
the whole line was roaring the refrain, and it broke like volleys
on the night:

_"Akbar! Akbar! Jimgrirn Ali Higg!"_

Jael Higg laughed. "He has a fool's luck and a lusty band of
followers," she said. "It was only because Ayisha called out
that he caught me. But a fool's luck is like a breath of wind
that passes--"

Suddenly she sat bolt upright and raised her right hand.

"Oh, this night! This madness! Of all the dreams, of all the
hallucinations, this is the wildest! I warned Ali Higg! I told
him my foreboding, and he laughed!"

She looked down at me again, and studied me for half a minute.

"Tell me," she went on, "is that Sheikh Jimgrim of yours mad, or
am I mad?"

"If you ask my opinion, as a _hakim,"_ I answered, "you were
mad to sit your camel alone, with only two men, within reach
of our Jimgrim."

"What does he think he will do with me at Petra?"

"He thinks silently," said I.

Whereat she too was silent for a few minutes, and then broke out
into a new tirade of exclamations, but this time in a language of
which I knew not one word--perhaps Russian, or Slovak, or
Bulgarian. I think she was praying in a sort of wild way to
long-neglected saints.

She gave me the impression of being mentally almost unhinged by
the sudden anticlimax of helplessness after over-confidence. Yet
when she spoke again her voice was calm, and not without a ring
of rather gallant humor.

"I suppose he thinks he has stolen the queen bee, and so has the
swarm in his power. But the swarm can sting, and will come for
the queen bee."

"So they bring their honey with them, who minds that?" Narayan
Singh retorted.

He was enjoying himself, acting the part of a bandit's follower
with perfect gusto.

"Oh, so it is honey you are after? And you two are Indians--a
Pathan and--"

"From Lahore," said I.

"Five thousand pounds would buy your services?"

"Five thousand