a civilian and a handful of
thieves--there are plenty more! If we succeed there is a deed
done well and cheaply! I never hunted lions, but I have seen a
tiger trapped and beaten. Have we not good bait with us?"

There followed a hot argument between Arab and Sikh, each
accusing the other of ulterior motives as well as ignorance and
cowardice; in fact, they acted like any other committee, growing
less and less parliamentary as their views diverged. Ali Baba
seemed to consider it relevant to call Narayan Singh a drunkard,
and the Sikh considered it his duty in the circumstances to refer
to Ali Baba's jail record. In the midst of all that effort to
solve the problem at Petra, Grim asked me to go and invite Jael
Higg to join us.

In that hard, uncharitable desert daylight she did not impress me
very favorably. The lines of her freckled face suggested too much
ruthlessness, as though she was positively handsome in a certain
way--as long as you observed the whole effect and did not study
details--there was a look of cold experience about her brown eyes
that chilled you. Of course, she was tired and that made a
difference; but I did not find it easy to feel sympathetic, and I
thought she was hardly the woman to win a jury's verdict on the
strength of personal appeal.

Nevertheless, with all the odds against her, she accomplished
that morning what I had never done, or seen done, although many
have attempted it and failed. She contrived to tear away Grim's
mask and to expose the man's real feelings.

He was always an enigma to me until that interview, at which they
squatted facing each other on Grim's mat, with me beside Grim and
the Sikh and Ali Baba glaring daggers at each other on either
hand. The early sun seemed to edge everybody with a sort of aura,
but it also showed every detail of a face and made it next to
impossible to hide emotion.

She opened the ball. I imagine she had been doing that most of
her life.

"Jimgrim," she said. "Jimgrim. Are you by any chance the American
named James Grim, who fought with Lawrence in Allenby's campaign?"

Grim astonished us all by admitting it at once. The name Jimgrim
sounds enough like Arabic to pass muster; and we wondered why he
should have gone to all that trouble to disguise himself, only to
confess his real name when there seemed no need. Even Ali Baba
left off cursing the Sikh under his breath.

"I am glad to know that," she said. "It will save my wasting
words. N