His eyes were darker than Grim's, and blazed as surely no white
man's ever did; and his likeness to Grim was lessened by the fact
that he had not been shaved for a day or two, and the sparse
black hair coarsened the outline of his chin and jaw. In spite of
his illness he had not laid aside the bandolier that crossed his
breast, nor the two daggers tucked into his waist-cloth. And he
laid his hand on a modern British Army rifle the minute he caught
sight of us.

Narayan Singh and I both bowed and, after greeting him with the
proper sonorous blessing, stood aside to let Ayisha approach. We
should have demeaned ourselves in his eyes, and hers as well, if
we had walked behind her. He nodded to us curtly, and almost
smiled at her; but that one wry twist of his lips was his nearest
approach to pleasantry that morning.

She knelt and kissed his hands and feet, waiting to speak until
she was spoken to; and he did not speak to her at all, but signed
to her with a tap on the head and a gesture to take her place on
the rug behind him. Then at a motion from me Ali Baba's two sons
brought forward the presents and the medicine-chest, setting them
down before him in the cave-mouth.

The presents were pretty good, I thought. I would not have minded
owning them myself; but he eyed them dully. There was a set of
Solingen razors, marked in Arabic with the days of the week; a
cloak of blue-and-white-striped cloth, fit for any prince of
Bedouins; and an ormolu clock with a gong inside it that would
have graced the chimneypiece of a Brooklyn boarding-house.

_"Mar'haba!"_* he said at last, by way of acknowledging our
existence, after he had stared at the presents for about two
minutes sourly; and I took that for permission to say my little
piece. [* Greeting]

So I delivered Grim's message, saying that he was a most
God-fearing and hard-fighting sheikh from Palestine, who had had
the honor to escort his mightiness' wife to Petra, and now,
learning of the illness of the famous Lion of Petra, who might
Allah bless for ever, rather than postpone his devotions had sent
me, his _hakim,_ schooled in medicine at Lahore University, and a
_darwaish_ to boot, to offer such relief as my modest skill
might compass.

That was a long speech to get off in Arabic for a comparative
beginner. I rather expected him to smile or say something
pleasant in return, but he didn't.

"By Allah, you have come to poison me!" he growled. "All _hakims_
are a