naive and wheedling toward a woman when they chose.

They came in with their tongues hanging out like a pair of pups,
and sticky with the awful stuff men sell for candy in the
El-Kalil bazaars. Evidently some woman had been pumping them
for information, and Grim made them stand in front of him
on the carpet.

"Well?"

They both spoke at once. Now and then one paused for breath and
then the other, but on the whole it was a neck-and-neck race to
tell the tale first.

"There was a woman in the _suk_ who had heard of Jimgrim but
never saw him, and she bought us sweets and took us to her house,
and she asked us questions about Jimgrim, and we told lies, and
she asked us what we were doing in El-Kalil, and we said nothing,
and she said _wallah!_ That was very little, and then she asked
us all over again about Jimgrim. (_Gasp_)

"So we said Jimgrim has already gone back to Jerusalem, and she
did not believe; but we swore by the beard of the Prophet, so she
said what were we going to do now, and we said we would go to the
governorate and beg for bread. (_Gasp_)

"So she said what next, and we said there is a great sheikh here
from Arabia, who makes a journey to Petra, and _inshallah_ he
will take us with him, and she said why did we want to go to
Petra, and we said because our mothers were carried off by the
Turks and sold to the Arabs and _inshallah_ we should find them
near Petra. (_Gasp_)"

"So far, good!" said Grim. "That's what she got out of you. Now
what did you get out of her?"

"She said _wallah!_ There is Ali Higg at Petra and he grinds the
face of the poor and is a great chief and will make us prisoners
and sell us for slaves or have us turned into eunuchs, and we
said (_gasp_) that we are _msakin_* and not afraid of Ali Higg
and he may as well have us as anybody, and if it is written that
we shall be eunuchs then it is written and who shall change it?
(_Gasp_) [* Poverty-stricken]

"And she said what made us think that the great sheikh will take
us to Petra, and we said because he had promised, but he may be a
big liar and we don't know yet."

"What kind of woman is she?" Grim asked.

"A big fat woman with a belly like two waterbags one on top of
the other, thus!"

"What is her name?"

"She is the wife of Ismail ben Rafiki, the wool-dealer."

"Uh-huh. Yes. Go on."

"So she said we should come back here and find out if the sheikh
will really take us and say to the sheikh (_gasp_) there is a
l