a prisoner?"

Grim did not answer either question.

"And I met a man named Yussuf. You know him?"

_"Naam."_ (Yes).

"He has been lying to Your Honor. He has said that the British
are helpless. He brought Your Honor a report from Palestine that
was a skein of falsehood hung up on little pegs of truth. He told
you the British are not able to defend themselves, he knowing
better; for he is one of those men who say always what the hearer
would like to hear."

"What has that to do with thee?" demanded Ali Higg.

He was looking about him furtively, and Narayan Singh picked up
his rifle off the rug and stood it against the wall. Grim turned
toward Ali Baba.

"Bring Yussuf!" he ordered.

The ranks opened, and Yussuf was thrust forward into the cave,
where he stood looking like a felon awaiting sentence.

"Did you speak the truth, or did you lie to the Lion of Petra?"
Grim demanded.

"Who am I that should know the truth of such matters?" the man
whined, his voice squeaking like a cart-wheel. "I obeyed. I
looked. I asked. Perhaps I did not understand all I saw and what
was told me."

"Is the Lion of Petra with ten-score fighting men able to stand
against the British with twenty thousand?" Grim asked him.

_"Inshallah._ The Lion is brave. Who knows? Yet I forgot to speak
of the twenty aeroplanes at Ludd, each having ten bombs of a
hundred pounds weight that could make short work in an hour or
two of ten score men."

"Why don't they come?" snarled Ali Higg.

"They take no delight in slaying the women and children,"
answered Grim. "Those black tents below there would be an easy
mark to aim at; but who would gain? It is better that peace
were kept."

"Throw that Yussuf over the cliff!" commanded Ali Higg.

But once more nobody moved to obey him, and Yussuf had the indecency
to smirk, for which Grim cursed him with whiplash sarcasm.

Then Ali Higg put both hands before his face and prayed aloud:

"O Allah, Lord of mercies and of wisdom and rebuke, if I am in
the hands of enemies and she who was the mother of good plans is
taken away from me, have I not, nevertheless, smitten the heretic
in thy name and raised thy banner over Petra? Give me, then,
wisdom, that I deal with these men and confound thy enemies. _La
Allah illa Allah!"_

He dropped his hands and looked up with a hard, fanatical frenzy
in his eyes. But they changed almost instantly. The ranks of Ali
Baba's men opened once more; and Jael Higg step