while Abbas Mahommed paid a debt so easily to a
mere wool-merchant.

"I am an old man," said Ali Baba, "and must die soon. May He Who
never sleeps* slay me before I see my sons afraid to fight Abbas
Mahommed and all his host!" [* A synonym for Allah]

"Let's talk like wise men and not fools," proposed Grim at last,
and since he had let them have their say first they heard him in
silence now. "The difficulty is that Abbas Mahommed's village
lies at the corner of the Dead Sea. We must turn that corner. If
we pass between him and the sea he has us between land and water.
If we journey too far south to avoid him we lose at least a day
and tire our camels out. A forced march now would mean that we
must feed the camels corn, and we have none too much of it with
us; whereas tomorrow the grazing will be passable, and farther
on, where the grazing is poor, we shall need the corn."

_"Wallah!_ The man knows."

_"Inshalla,_ let there be a fight then!"

"Wait!" counseled Ali Baba. "I know this Jimgrim. There will be a
deception and a ruse, but no fight. Listen to him. Wait and see!"

"I think we will travel to the southward," said Grim, "and halt
at dawn out of sight of Abbas Mahommed's village. There let the
camels graze. But I, and a few of us, will take the lady Ayisha's
camel with the _shibriyah,_ and draw near to the village. That
black-faced rogue of Rafiki's will point us out to them, for he
will recognize the _shibriyah._

"Then when they come to seize the lady Ayisha they will find no
woman in the litter. So they will believe that Rafiki's messenger
has told lies that are blacker than his face, and will beat him
and let us go."

"But if they do not let you go? They are ruffians, you know, Jimgrim."

"Then I shall find another way."

"And how will you account for being so few men, when Rafiki's
messenger will have said we are at least a score?"

"Will that not be further proof that the man is a liar?"

"If I did not know you of old I would say that is a fool's plan,"
remarked Ali Baba, and his sons grunted agreement. "But you have
a devil of resourcefulness. _Taib!_ Let us try this plan and see
what comes of it."

So we started off again to a running comment of contemptuous
disapproval from the lady Ayisha, who seemed to think that no
plan could be a good one unless it entailed murder. The farther
we headed eastward, the nearer we came to the pale beyond which
her lord and master's word was summary law, th