A Ride Across Palestine | Page 5

and trousers of the same; and in his hand he carried a very
broad-brimmed straw hat.
"Mr. Jones, I believe," he said, as he bowed to me. Jones is a good
travelling name, and, if the reader will allow me, I will call myself
Jones on the present occasion.
"Yes," I said, pausing with the brandy-bottle in one hand, and the flask
in the other. "That's my name; I'm Jones. Can I do anything for you,
sir?"

"Why, yes, you can," said he. "My name is Smith,--John Smith."
"Pray sit down, Mr. Smith," I said, pointing to a chair. "Will you do
anything in this way?" and I proposed to hand the bottle to him. "As far
as I can judge from a short stay, you won't find much like that in
Jerusalem."
He declined the Cognac, however, and immediately began his story. "I
hear, Mr. Jones," said he, "that you are going to Moab to- morrow."
"Well," I replied, "I don't know whether I shall cross the water. It's not
very easy, I take it, at all times; but I shall certainly get as far as Jordan.
Can I do anything for you in those parts?"
And then he explained to me what was the object of his visit. He was
quite alone in Jerusalem, as I was myself; and was staying at H- 's hotel.
He had heard that I was starting for the Dead Sea, and had called to ask
if I objected to his joining me. He had found himself, he said, very
lonely; and as he had heard that I also was alone, he had ventured to
call and make his proposition. He seemed to be very bashful, and half
ashamed of what he was doing; and when he had done speaking he
declared himself conscious that he was intruding, and expressed a hope
that I would not hesitate to say so if his suggestion were from any cause
disagreeable to me.
As a rule I am rather shy of chance travelling English friends. It has so
frequently happened to me that I have had to blush for the
acquaintances whom I have selected, that I seldom indulge in any close
intimacies of this kind. But, nevertheless, I was taken with John Smith,
in spite of his name. There was so much about him that was pleasant,
both to the eye and to the understanding! One meets constantly with
men from contact with whom one revolts without knowing the cause of
such dislike. The cut of their beard is displeasing, or the mode in which
they walk or speak. But, on the other hand, there are men who are
attractive, and I must confess that I was attracted by John Smith at first
sight. I hesitated, however, for a minute; for there are sundry things of
which it behoves a traveller to think before he can join a companion for
such a journey as that which I was about to make. Could the young
man rise early, and remain in the saddle for ten hours together? Could
he live upon hard-boiled eggs and brandy-and-water? Could he take his
chance of a tent under which to sleep, and make himself happy with the
bare fact of being in the desert? He saw my hesitation, and attributed it

to a cause which was not present in my mind at the moment, though the
subject was one of the greatest importance when strangers consent to
join themselves together for a time, and agree to become no strangers
on the spur of the moment.
"Of course I will take half the expense," said he, absolutely blushing as
he mentioned the matter.
"As to that there will be very little. You have your own horse, of
course?"
"Oh, yes."
"My dragoman and groom-boy will do for both. But you'll have to pay
forty shillings to the Arabs! There's no getting over that. The consul
won't even look after your dead body, if you get murdered, without
going through that ceremony."
Mr. Smith immediately produced his purse, which he tendered to me.
"If you will manage it all," said he, "it will make it so much the easier,
and I shall be infinitely obliged to you." This of course I declined to do.
I had no business with his purse, and explained to him that if we went
together we could settle that on our return to Jerusalem. "But could he
go through really hard work?" I asked. He answered me with an
assurance that he would and could do anything in that way that it was
possible for man to perform. As for eating and drinking he cared
nothing about it, and would undertake to be astir at any hour of the
morning that might be named. As for sleeping accommodation, he