d tour. Like all tourists, they went to the
Mouski, Cairo's great bazaar, and it was there, in the Street of the
Goldsmiths, that the general got his idea.

It cost him a chunk of money, out of his own pocket, but like most
Irishmen, he was a sporting man himself. After all, he grinned to
himself, I started the whole business, and I might as well do it up in
style.

He had decided that no ordinary coin would do for such an historic
occasion. So he had a goldsmith make him a heavy solid-gold medallion
almost twice as big as a twenty-dollar gold piece. He was not very much
pleased with the design he sketched out hastily, but on the spur of the
moment, he could think of nothing better.

The "Heads" side of the great coin bore a _front_ view of the blind
goddess of justice, with her scales. The "Tails" side had a _rear_ view
of the same lady.

It was rather crudely done, but time was short. "It'll have to do," the
general chuckled, as the plane bore him back to Jerusalem.

* * * * *

When the appointed day came, the United Nations conference room in
Jerusalem was jammed with Israeli and Arab officials, and with a pack of
correspondents who had magically appeared.

General O'Reilly had decided against asking each side to put its
agreement into writing. A true gentleman's agreement shouldn't be
written, he concluded. He merely asked the leaders for each side if they
agreed to abide by the fall of the coin. Solemnly, both assented.

Courteously, the Israelis had allowed the Arabs to call while the coin
was still in the air. There was silence as General O'Reilly flipped it
high up towards the ceiling.

"Tails!" cried the Arab leader.

The spinning coin glittered, falling onto the green baize table. The
general looked at it. The goddess had her back turned.

"It is tails," he announced, and the Arab delegation broke into happy
shouts.

And, astonishingly, that was that. The leading Tel-Aviv newspaper summed
up Israeli feeling when it wrote in an editorial: "Certainly there were
many heavy hearts in our country when the coin fell against us. But let
us show the world that we are true sportsmen. We risked, and we lost.
Let this be the end of it."

Work began on the dams at last, without interference or protest. Not a
word was ever written on paper, but it was the only agreement between
the two countries that was scrupulously kept by both sides.

It was, of course, a wonderful story. The name