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The fixed attention of the Arabs told the Legionaries, despite their ignorance of Arabic, that at last the important negotiation of the reward was under way. Pipes and cigarettes smoldered, unsmoked; all eyes turned eagerly toward the Master and Bara Miyan.
Bara Miyan smiled slightly as he gestured the Legionaries also to wash hands and faces; but the Master, little relishing the idea of using this same water after the Arabs, shook his head. Not thus slyly could the Olema inflict humiliation on unbelievers. A hard look crept into the Master's eyes. This covert insult, after the exchange of salt, boded very ill.
When the Alexandrian library was burned by Amrou, at Omar's order, the four thousand baths of the city were heated for six months by ancient scrolls. I have heard that ye Feringi have greatly mourned the loss of the Arwam learning and poetry. Not all this treasure was lost, White Sheik!" The Master started, peered at Bara Miyan and forgot to chew his soothing khat leaves. "And then ?" asked he.
Only by setting teeth into his lip could the Sheik repress a cry. Dark of face, he turned to the Master. Smiling, the Master asked: "Perhaps now, O Bara Miyan, thou wouldst ask thine imams to plant a date-stone, and make it in a few minutes bear fruit, even as the Prophet himself did? Try, if thou hast better fortune than with the birds!
And with swift gestures he flung back the enveloping folds of the blanket, as if only he, the Master, could do this thing. Then, as the Myzab and the Stone appeared, he drew from his pocket the Great Pearl Star, and laid that also on the cloth, crying in a loud voice: "O, Bara Miyan, and people of Jannati Shahr, behold!"
If it comes to a fight, and I am killed, Leclair will command you. His knowledge of Arabic temporarily ranks him above Bohannan. Don't shoot unless it comes to hard necessity; but if you do shoot, make every bullet count and save the last one for yourselves!" Bara Miyan clapped his hands. Through two arched doorways, to right and left, entered a silent file of the huge, half-naked Maghrabi men.
The Master nodded at Brodeur. The droning of the apparatus ceased, and again the hand became visible. "Faith!" the major's voice was heard. "We've landed half a dozen home runs, and they've never even got to second!" "Come, O Bara Miyan!" the Master smiled. "Now we will put away the things of magic, and talk the words of men. Here is my salt!"
With some smattering of Arabic, she may have caught something of the sense of this offer. But the Master, unmoved by this second offer of Olema's, merely shook his head again, saying: "No, Bara Miyan. We seek other rewards. Therefore will I ask thee still another question." "Thy question shall be answered, O Frank!"
But the shadow of a deep astonishment could not quite veil itself in the profound caverns of the old man's eyes. "Strike again, Bara Miyan," invited the Master. "The other arm, perhaps, may not have lost its cunning!" The Olema shook his head. "No, by Allah!" he replied. "I know thy magic can numb the flesh, and it is a good magic. It is strong.
His head snapped up, his eyes glittered like a caged eagle's, the fine, high nostrils dilated; and there he stood, captive but unbeaten, proud even in this hour of death. Bara Miyan made no great speaking. All he asked was: "Art thou, indeed, that Shaytan called Abd el Rahman, the Reviler?" The desert Sheik nodded with arrogant admission. Bara Miyan turned and clapped his hands.
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