fought under Lawrence
against the Turks? _Wallah!_ I fought on the other side, but we
all feared Lawrence and admired him so that not a man would try
to capture him, although Djemal Pasha put a great price on his
head. And you were known far and wide as his man! There was a
price on your head too--dead or alive--five thousand pounds
Turkish--well I remember it. By the beard of the Prophet, you
might have come here as a friend, O Jimgrim!"

------------
* By Allah, this is a strange happening.
------------

Grim laughed.

"I come here as a friend in any case," he answered. _"Khajjaltni
bima'rufak!_* You brought back a woman to poison me!"

-----------
* You shame me with your friendship!
-----------

And this is where the immorality comes in. I told a lie, and
don't regret it. Nor did Grim regret it; and he backed me up. And
Narayan Singh supported both of us.

The lie was my own idea entirely, invented on the spur of the
moment; and afterward, when old Ali Baba named me The "Father of
Lies" on the strength of it I felt extremely proud, as he
intended that I should do. The lie worked.

I said:

"O Ali Higg, men said of you that you are a fierce man, swift in
wrath and slow to take advice. And others said that you are sick
with burning boils; yet who shall go into the Lion's den and heal
him? And Ayisha said to me:

"'Thou art a _hakim,_ yet he will never listen to thee. But he is
my lord, and shall I see him linger in agony? Give me a potion
that will weaken him. Then in his weakness he will call for help,
and thou shalt heal the boils. And afterward that which is
written shall come to pass. If in great wrath because I mixed the
potion in his drink he shall have me slain, nevertheless the Lion
will be whole again; and who am I compared to him?' So said the
lady Ayisha."

I know Grim would have given a hundred dollars for leave to laugh
then right out in meeting; but he kept a straight face, and he
had so contrived to make Jael Higg afraid of him that though she
looked scandalized she held her tongue. And Narayan Singh, as I
said, supported me.

"These words are true, O Lion of Petra," he boomed out. "I heard
the lady Ayisha speak, and it was I who put the little vial in
her hands. By the beard of the Prophet I swear the words are true."

But as he is a Sikh, and therefore believes that the prophet of
El-Islam was a liar and impostor, with a beard as fit to be
dishonored as his fiery creed, perhaps h