at the far end. There, on a bare bench
in a barren ante-room, Grim left me to cool my heels. He
knocked, and entered a door marked "private."

It was fully half an hour before the door opened again and I was
beckoned in. Grim was alone in the room with the Administrator,
a rather small, lean, rigidly set up man, with merry fire in his
eye, and an instantly obvious gift for being obeyed. He sat at
an enormous desk, but would have looked more at ease in a tent,
or on horseback. The three long rows of campaign ribbons looked
incongruous beside the bunch of flowers that somebody had crammed
into a Damascus vase on the desk, with the estimable military
notion of making the utmost use of space.

Sir Louis was certainly in an excellent temper. He offered me a
chair, and looked at me with a sort of practical good-humour that
seemed to say, "Well, here he is; now how shall we handle him?"
I was minded to ask outright for what I wanted, but something in
his attitude revealed that he knew all that already and would
prefer to come at the problem in his own way. It was clear,
without a word being said, that he proposed to make some sort of
use of me without being so indiscreet as to admit it. He
reminded me rather of Julius Caesar, who was also a little man,
considering the probable qualifications of some minor spoke in a
prodigious wheel of plans.

"I understand you want to go to El-Kerak?" he said, smiling as if
all life were an amusing game.

I admitted the impeachment. Grim was standing, some little way
behind me and to one side; I did not turn my head to look at
him, for that might have given a false impression that he and I
were in league together, but I was somehow aware that with folded
arms he was studying me minutely.

"Well," said Sir Louis, "there's no objection; only a
stipulation: We wouldn't let an Englishman go, because of the
risk--not to him, but to us. Any fool has a right to get killed,
but not to obligate his government. All the missionaries were
called in from those outlying districts long ago. We don't want
to be held liable for damages for failure to protect. Such
things have happened. You see, the idea is, we assume no
responsibility for what takes place beyond the Jordan and the
Dead Sea. Now, if you'd like to sign a letter waiving any claim
against us for protection, that would remove any obstacle to your
going. But, if you think that unreasonable, the alternative is
safe. You