The Lion of Petra | Page 4

a wedding. "You've time to crawl out yet. We cross that
valley on the first leg, and that's merely a sample!"
But it's easy enough to be driven forward in comfort to a new
experience, never mind what past years have taught, nor what
imagination can depict; if that were not so no new battles would be
fought, and women would refuse to restock the world with trouble's
makings. A reasoning animal man may be, but he isn't often guided by
his reason, and at that early stage in the proceedings you couldn't have
argued me out of them with anything much less persuasive than brute
force.
We rolled down the white road into Hebron in a cloud of dust before
midday, and de Crespigny, the governor of the district, came out to
greet us like old friends; for it was only a matter of weeks since he and
we and some others had stood up to death together, and that tie has a
way of binding closer than conventional associations do.
But there were other friends who were equally glad to see us.
Seventeen men came out from the shadow of the governorate wall, and
stood in line to shake hands--and that is a lengthy business, for it is bad
manners to be the first to let go of an Arab's hand, so that tact is
required as well as patience; but it was well worth while standing in the
sun repeating the back-and-forth rigmarole of Arab greeting if that
meant that Ali Baba and his sixteen sons and grandsons were to be our
companions on the adventure. They followed us at last into the
governorate, and sat down on the hall carpet with the air of men who
know what fun the future holds.
Narayan Singh stayed out in the hall and looked them over. There is
something in the make-up of the Sikh that, while it gives him to
understand the strength and weaknesses of almost any alien race, yet
constrains him more or less to the policeman's viewpoint. It isn't a
moral viewpoint exactly; he doesn't invariably disapprove; but he isn't
deceived as to the possibilities, and yields no jot or tittle of the upper

hand if he can only once assume it. There was scant love lost between
him and old Ali Baba.
"Nharak said,* O ye thieves!" he remarked, looking down into Ali
Baba's mild old eyes. [* Greeting!]
Squatting in loose-flowing robes, princely bred, and almost saintly with
his beautiful gray beard, the patriarch looked frail enough to be
squashed under the Sikh's enormous thumb. But he wasn't much
impressed.
"God give thee good sense, Sikh!" was the prompt answer.
"Fear Allah, and eschew infidelity while there is yet time!" boomed a
man as big as the Sikh and a third as heavy again--Ali Baba's eldest son,
a sunny-tempered rogue, as I knew from past experience.
"Whose husband have you put to shame by fathering those two brats?"
asked a third man.
Mahommed that was, Ali Baba's youngest, who had saved Grim's life
and mine at El-Kerak.
They all laughed uproariously at that jest, so Mahommed repeated it
more pointedly, and the Sikh turned his back to consider the sunshine
through the open door and the rising heat within. Suliman and the other
little gutter-snipe proceeded to make friends with the whole gang
promptly, giving as good as they got in the way of repartee, and nearly
starting a riot until Grim called Ali Baba into the dining-room, where
de Crespigny was shaking up the second round of warm cocktails in a
beer-bottle.
Ali Baba chose to presume that the mixture was intended for himself.
The instant de Crespigny set the bottle on the table the old rascal tipped
the lot into a tumbler and drank it off.
"It is good that the Koran says nothing against such stuff as this," he
said, blinking as he set the glass down. "I have never tasted wine," he

added righteously.
"Are the camels ready?" asked Grim.
"Surely."
"What sort are they? Mangy old louse-food, I suppose, that had been
turned out by the Jews to die?"
"Allah! My sons have scoured Hebron for the best. Never were such
camels! They are fit to make the pilgrimage to Mecca."
"I suppose that means that the rent to be charged for each old camel for
a month is more than the purchase-price of a really good one?"
"The camels are mine, Jimgrim. I have bought them. Shall there be talk
of renting between me and thee?"
"Not yet. After I've seen the beasts. If they're as good as you say I'll pay
you at the government rate for them per month."
"Allah forbid! The camels are yours, Jimgrim. For me and mine there
will no doubt be a profit