all-work, clean him with
kerosene and soft soap--gave him a big packing-case to sleep
in along with Julius Caesar the near-bull-dog mascot--and
thereafter broke him in and taught him things seldom included
in a school curriculum.

In the result, Suliman adored Grim with all the concentrated zeal
of hero-worship of which almost any small boy is capable; but
under the shadow of Grim's protection he feared not even "brass-
hats" nor regarded civilians, although he was dreadfully afraid
of devils. The devil-fear was a relic of his negroid ancestry.
Some Arab Sheikh probably captured his great-grandmother on a
slave-raid. Superstition lingers in dark veins longer than any
other human failing.

I think I called five times before he confessed at last
reluctantly that Grim was in. That was in the morning after
breakfast, and I was shown into the room with the fireplace and
the deep armchairs. Grim was reading but seemed to me more than
usually reserved, as if the book had been no more than a screen
to think behind, that left him in a manner unprotected when he
laid it down. I talked at random, and he hardly seemed to
be listening.

"Say," he said, suddenly interrupting me, "you came out of that
El-Kerak affair pretty creditably. Suppose I let you see
something else from the inside. Will you promise not to shout it
all over Jerusalem?"

"Use your own judgment," I answered.

"You mustn't ask questions."

"All right."

"If any one in the Administration pounces on you in the course of
it, you'll have to drop out and know nothing."

"Agreed."

"It may prove a bit more risky than the El-Kerak business."

"Couldn't be," I answered.

"You can't talk enough Arabic to get away with. But could you
act deaf and dumb?"

"Sure--in three languages."

"You understand--I've no authority to let you in on this. I
might catch hell if I were found out doing it. But I need help,
of a certain sort. I want a man who isn't likely to be spotted
by the gang I'm after. Get behind that screen--quick!"

It was a screen that hid a door leading to the pantry and the
servants' quarters. There was a Windsor chair behind it, and it
is much easier to keep absolutely still when you are fairly
comfortable. I had hardly sat down when a man wearing spurs,
who trod heavily, entered the room and I heard Grim get up to
greet him.

"Are we alone?" a voice asked gruffly.

Instead of answering Grim came and looked behind the screen,