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Updated: October 18, 2025
We had hardly finished a hurried meal when the lady Ayisha and her men arrived on mean baggage camels provided by old Rafiki; and they were not in the least pleased with their mounts, for a baggage camel is as different from a beast trained to carry a rider as an up-to-date limousine is from a Chinese one-wheel barrow.
Our men wanted to cross over and take advantage of the shade it would give as the sun climbed higher, but Grim refused to let them; whereat Ayisha went into a shrewish rage, and ordered her four men to take up her tent and pitch it over by the rock whether Grim permitted it or not. So they obeyed her, and Grim said nothing.
De Crespigny smiled, and came back at her with his next question suddenly. "Are not those things for the wife of Ali Higg, and are you not from Petra?" "If you know so surely whence I come, why do you ask me?" "Are you a slave?" "Allah!" "How many wives has Ali Higg?" "How should I know?" "Because I think you are one of his wives. Is that not so?" "I am Ayisha. I claim Your Honor's protection."
They were armed as everybody is in those parts who hopes to live and in a hurry. Ayisha and her people did not see them, because the great rock was in the way, but we left off eating to watch, and Grim went into his tent to use field-glasses without being seen. It is not unheard of for an Arab sheikh to use Zeiss binoculars, but it might make a stranger suspicious.
The range of my rifle is the measure of the line across which none may come. "Stay with them, Ayisha, until the train leaves El-Maan. Then you may leave your camel and return hither on the train. That is my order." She was bluffed. And she recognized it with a sort of dog-like glance of admiration.
Yet we've got to hurry, because old Ibrahim ben Ah with that army may get suspicious and send back a messenger on his own account. Now, do you feel willing to beard the Lion in his den?" "Alone?" I asked. I never felt less willing to do anything, and dare say my face betrayed it. "No. Narayan Singh will go too, and, of course, Ayisha."
By her bearing she was either a junior wife or a concubine, and she greeted Ayisha like a sister with a great pow-wow of blessing and reply. But Ali Higg cut all that short. He was no sentimentalist. "Find Shammas Abdul," he ordered her. "Order him to take camel and meet the men returning from the Ben Aroun raid. Let him bid them hurry. Go!" She obeyed on the run.
Point is, do you know of any other gang that the wool-merchant could hire right now to attack us somewhere on the road?" "There's none in Hebron that would dare. Plenty outside in the villages." "The lady Ayisha has probably told that she's going tonight," said Grim. "Old Woolly-wits might not find it out until too late, but I suspect his wives get all the gossip that's going.
By the beard of the Prophet, Ayisha, beware of my jealousy! I am a man of few words but sudden deeds! Is there a man who stands in my way? May Allah show compassion on him, for he is like to need it!" He was so fervid in his avowals that he almost convinced me almost made me believe that his private agreement with me had been a camouflage for his real intentions.
In the center of that the tents were pitched, and the only building in use was a great half-open cave on another hillside, in which Ayisha told us Ali Higg himself lived, overlooking the entire camp and directing its destinies. On the top of the mountain in front of us was the tomb of Aaron, Moses' brother.
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