essions of contentment from the dog in proof of it.

So the others in the stuffy council place gave the dog a wide berth and
no privilege, but conceded him the right to hold the beast, if he wanted
to, without personal defilement. And since the way of the world is that
a man who has won the first of his contentions can win all the rest
with half the ease, he persuaded them with a hurricane of black man's
rhetoric to do what Arabs consider almost wicked.

Unbelievers who are prisoners should die, beyond all question.

"As the dregs of oil shall the fruit of the tree of Al Zakkum boil in
the bellies of the damned!" the sheik quoted. "They should be hurried,
therefore, to the punishment that waits!"

But Hassen Ah outargued him.

"Then they will land men from the ship, who will search our houses,"
he asserted. "Is there a majority in the council who would like to be
searched by unbelievers?"

"Then bind them, and take them to their ship, and tell a tale of much
drunkenness and wrong-doing. Ask an indemnity, and show the proofs,
which will be easy to arrange."

"They, too, will tell their tale!" said Hassan Ah in perfect Arabic.

Unlike the more enlightened peoples of the West, Arabs do not encourage
the mutilation of their mother-tongue; they teach it as carefully as
they talk it, and this negro spoke like an Arab of the blood.

"There are certain damages they have received--some bruises on the
face and tears in the clothing that does not belong to them but their
government," he continued. "They would lay all the blame on us, and
would breathe in the face of an appointed man, in proof that they were
not drunk. And who could get other drink than coffee or water here? And
who would believe the rest of our story, having found that part to be
a lie? There would be a landing, and a search for proof, and much
unpleasantness. Besides--"

If he had intended to add further arguments, the sheik saw fit to nip
them in the bud; for there were some men in the council-room who did not
know as much as Hassan Ah. Any free man may speak in council in Arabia.

"What is thy way, then?" he asked.

The woolly headed pilot laughed aloud, taking care to make it evident
that he was laughing at the prisoners; to laugh at a sheik or a sheik's
bewilderment would be too dangerous.

"I would send them to the ship well satisfied," he answered.

"With money?" asked the sheik.

"With whose money?" asked Hassan Ah.

"With thine?" shot b