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Out of ten Frenchmen in Syria, five believe that Lawrence is with Feisul and if they can catch him he will get short shrift. But, oh, Jimgrim oh, if it were true! Wallahi!" Grim didn't answer, but I saw him look long at Jeremy, and then for about thirty seconds steadily at Mabel Ticknor.
"I would go a long way," he answered cautiously. "What do you intend?" "To appear near the firing-line, for one thing, with somebody who looks like Colonel Lawrence, and somebody else who looks enough like Feisul in one of Feisul's cars, and give the French a run for it in one direction while Feisul escapes in the other." "Wallahi! But what if Feisul won't go?" "He'll get helped!
"Wallahi! If we go on such an errand who shall save our lives? Who are we to come between wolves and their prey?" "Say ye are my messengers," retorted Grim. "Let any touch a messenger of mine who dares." "But they will not believe us." "That is their affair. It is Allah's way to make blind those who it is written are to be destroyed."
It was obvious from the first that they all knew her by sight. "Wallahi! Good meat for the crows ye will all be presently! Has the Lion of Petra lost his teeth that jackals hunt ahead of him? Did the men of Dat Ras profit by coming between him and his prey? Go, look at Rat Das and count the splinters of men's bones! So shall your bones lie ye who tempt the wrath of Ali Higg!"
That was what I should have done. But suddenly Grim turned and pushed the muzzle of his pistol into Ayisha's face as she leaned out of the shibrayah to watch. It caught her under the jawbone, so that she could not see what his finger was doing, and did not dare try to move away. "Now shout!" he ordered her. "Tell 'em your name Wallahi! Yell, or I'll kill you."
"Good; Syed Toorkee has possession of Muscat, and Azim bin Ghis was slain in the streets." "Is this true, Wallahi?" "It is true." "Heh-heh-h! This is news!" stroking his beard. "Have you heard, master, of Suleiman bin Ali?" "Heh, that is very good." "Did you have to pay much tribute to the Wagogo?"
"Let Ali Higg keep his wives within reach if he hopes to call them his! Wallahi! I would laugh to see the Lion of Petra tearing his clothes with rage for such a matter as this!" And all the gang agreed. Ayisha began to question Grim openly about his home and belongings. She wanted to know how many wives he had, and he told her none, which made her all the more determined.
"Wallahi, bana, I never heard the name; but stop, Kazeh, in Kinyamwezi, means 'kingdom. Perhaps they gave that name to the place they stopped at. But then, I used to call the first house Sny bin Amer's house, and Speke lived at Musa Mzuri's house, but both houses, as well as all the rest, are in Tabora." "Thank you, sheikh.
And I have done your name no harm, but good on the country-side." "Allah! How have you saved me from destruction?" "By preventing that unwise raid on El-Maan." "Wallahi! Do you think my men could not have accomplished it?" "Maybe. Do you think the British would be fools enough to let that go unpunished? The El-Maan people would surely have appealed to them.
Wallahi haida fasl!* Not he who fought under Lawrence against the Turks? Wallah! I fought on the other side, but we all feared Lawrence and admired him so that not a man would try to capture him, although Djemal Pasha put a great price on his head. And you were known far and wide as his man! There was a price on your head too dead or alive five thousand pounds Turkish well I remember it.
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