ut did this man tell you
further whether that lady has chanced to come to Palestine?"

She shook her head.

"Of that he told me nothing, and I have heard nothing. Now
listen, my guests. You think it strange that I should know so
much, but it is not strange, since here in Syria, knowledge is
the business of some of us. Did you then believe, O foolish
children, that two knights like you, who have played a part in a
very great story, whereof already whispers run throughout the
East, could travel by land and sea and not be known? Did you then
think that none were left behind to watch your movements and to
make report of them to that mighty one who sent out the ship of
war, charged with a certain mission? Well, what he knows I know.
Have I not said it is my business to know? Now, why do I tell you
this? Well, perhaps because I like such knights as you are, and I
like that tale of two men who stood side by side upon a pier
while a woman swam the stream behind them, and afterwards, sore
wounded, charged their way through a host of foes. In the East we
love such deeds of chivalry. Perhaps also because I would warn
you not to throw away lives so gallant by attempting to win
through the guarded gates of Damascus upon the maddest of all
quests.

"What, you still stare at me and doubt? Good, I have been telling
you lies. I was not awaiting you upon the quay, and that porter
with whom I seemed to quarrel was not charged to seize your
baggage and bring it to my house. No spies watched your movements
from England to Beirut. Only since you have been at dinner I
visited your room and read some writings which, foolishly, you
and John have left among your baggage, and opened some books in
which other names than Peter and John were written, and drew a
great sword from its scabbard on which was engraved a motto:
'Meet D'Arcy, meet Death!' and heard Peter call John Wulf, and
John call Peter Godwin, and so forth."

"It seems," said Wulf in English, "that we are flies in a web,
and that the spider is called the widow Masouda, though of what
use we are to her I know not. Now, brother, what is to be done?
Make friends with the spider?"

"An ill ally," answered Godwin. Then looking her straight in the
face he asked, "Hostess, who know so much, tell me why, amongst
other names, did that donkey driver call you 'daughter of
Al-je-bal'?"

She started, and answered:

"So you understand Arabic? I thought it. Why do you ask? What
does it ma