drift. The men who had come under the
Ichwan's influence kept joining in and raising objections. I
gathered that they expected a proportionate percentage of the
bribe for which Suliman ben Saoud was supposed to be maneuvering.

But even Abdul Ali, with a pouch of paper money in his hand, was
not quite so barefaced as to bribe the Ichwan publicly. At the
end of five minutes he suggested a private talk on the parapet.
Suliman ben Saoud rose with apparent reluctance. Abdul Ali of
Damascus took his arm. It was Suliman ben Saoud who opened the
narrow door, and Abdul Ali who went through first. I did not
wait for any invitation, but let my snoring neighbor fall on his
side, hurried through after them, and closed the door behind me.
Groping for the stick in the dark, I jammed it into the notches.
It fitted perfectly. It held the door immovable and barred
that stairway against all-comers. Then I followed them to
the parapet.

The moon was about full and bathing the whole roof, and all the
countryside in liquid light. There was a certain amount of mist
lower down, and you could only make out the Dead Sea through it
here and there; but up where we were, and even in the moat
eighty feet below us, it was almost like daylight without the
glare and heat. I leaned over, but could see nobody in the moat,
and there was no sign of Mahommed ben Hamza.

Abdul Ali led the way toward the corner where Grim had given his
orders to ben Hamza that afternoon. Abdul Ali did not seem to
realize that I was following. When he turned at last, with his
back to the parapet and the moonlight full in his face, he
demanded in German:

"Wass machen Sie hier?"

I was about to answer him when there came a noise like
subterranean thunder from the mouth of the stairway. They were
trying to force that door below and follow us. The first words I
used were in English, for Grim's benefit:

"I stuck a stick in the door. I should say it's good for ten or
fifteen minutes unless they use explosives."

That gave the whole game away at once.

"So!" said Abdul Ali. He thrust the wallet into his bosom. With
the other hand he pulled out a repeating pistol. "So!"

Grim said never a word. He closed with him. In a second we were
all three struggling like madmen. The pistol was not cocked; I
managed to get hold of Abdul Ali's wrist and wrench the weapon
away before he could pull back the slide. Then we all three went
down together on the st