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It was hers and his, and perhaps Monny's, for Monny had backed Rachel up in creating a wrong impression, as if they two had been playing together, like children, to trick the grown-ups. But I had to find out what had started the ball rolling, because it looked as if that ball had come out of the pocket of Bedr. "I'm glad you're happy," I said, "and my hope is that you'll remain so.
Muslim poets and historians are never weary of expatiating upon the glories achieved by their tiny community with little but abiding zeal and supreme faith with which to confound their foes. No military event in the life of the Prophet called forth such rejoicings from his own lips as the triumph at Bedr: "O ye Meccans, if ye desired a decision, now hath the decision come to you.
"My name is Bedr el Gemaly," he introduced himself. "I have a letter for milord." "Who gave it to you?" I challenged him. The ingratiating smile seemed to flicker like a candle flame in a sudden puff of wind. "A friend of my, a dragoman. He could not come to bring it. So he give it to me. The gentleman's name was Fenton. My friend, he was sent from him at Cairo."
Later, when the Armenians had returned to Egypt, "Blount" had come with him, for a "rest cure." He had engaged Bedr as dragoman, and on leaving had asked for Bedr's card.
It isn't my fault. I'd tell in a minute if she'd let me." "Was it she who began the game?" I dared to inquire. "Or was it Bedr? Now, this is a question I really have a right to ask. I'll tell you why afterward, if you don't know already from Monny."
Not far off I could see the blue-windowed, white-painted desert train, round which, on the station platform, buzzed and scolded the Set, demanding their hand-luggage and their compartments. Brigit and Monny, who must have seen Bedr, were too tactful to hover near: also they knew "Antoun Effendi" too well to think it necessary. Bedr gave me no time to speak.
The Jews had been alternately forced and cajoled into submission, the Disaffected had been swept into temporary loyalty after the triumph at Bedr, his own followers were magnificently proud of his dominance, the Kureisch had made as yet no serious endeavours to avenge their humiliation at Bedr; moreover, the religious and political affairs of the city had been regulated so that it was possible to carry on the usual business of life in security a security which certainly possessed no guaranteed permanence, and which might at any moment crack beneath the feet of those who walked thereon and plunge them back into an anarchy of warring creeds and chiefs still a security such as Medina had seldom known, built up by the one strong personality within its walls.
Bedr el Gemaly, now one of the great unemployed, had been seen near the hospital where the injured man lay; but he had taken the alarm and departed without inquiring for the invalid's health; or else his being in that neighbourhood was a coincidence. The name of the man knifed was Burke, and London was given as his address.
Henceforward his activities consist chiefly of wars aggressive and defensive, while the religion actuating them receives slighter notice, because the main thesis has been established in his own state and requires the force of arms to obtain its supremacy over alien races. After Bedr, the poet and Prophet becomes the administrator and Prophet.
Our next expedition, as soon as light came, was to the town, where we inquired at the few hotels, and put questions to the police. Nobody answering the description of Bedr and his two companions had been seen in Medinet, and we had to go back to camp baffled. There was our adventure; and when we reached Cairo by train, the mystery of the oiled hand was still unsolved.
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