tionally cautious. He watched his man with a cat-like caution, and
when Rad called a slave and gave him orders in fluent Arabic, he made
him translate his commands forthwith.

Rad el Moussa protested that he had ordered nothing more than the
carrying out of his visitor's wishes. But it seemed to Kettle that he
protested just a trifle too vehemently, and his suspicions deepened.

He tapped his pistol in its resting-place, and nodded his head
meaningly. "You've friends in this town," he said, "and I dare say
you'll have a goodish bit of power in your small way. I've neither, and
I don't deny that if you bring up all your local army to interfere, I
may have a toughish fight of it; but whatever happens to me in the long
run, you may take it as straight from yours truly that you'll go to your
own funeral if trouble starts. So put that in your hookah and smoke it,
tintacks, and give me the other tube."

Captain Kettle was used to the dilatory ways of the East, and he was
prepared to wait, though never doubting that Murray would be surrendered
to him in due time, and he would get his own way in the end. So he
picked up one of the snaky tubes of the great pipe, and put the amber
mouthpiece between his lips; and there for an hour the pair of them
squatted on the divan, with the hookah gurgling and reeking between
them. From time to time a slave-girl came and replenished the pipe with
tobacco or fire as was required. But these were the only interruptions,
and between whiles they smoked on in massive silence.

At the end of that hour, the man-slave who had been sent out with the
message re-entered the room and delivered his tidings. Rad el Moussa in
his turn passed it on. Murray was even then waiting in the justice
chamber, so he said, at the further side of the house, and could be
taken away at once. Kettle rose to his feet, and the Arab stood before
him with bowed head and folded arms.

Captain Kettle began to feel shame for having pressed this man too
hardly. It seemed that he had intended to act honestly all along, and
the suspiciousness of his behavior doubtless arose from some difficulty
of custom or language. So the sailor took the Rad's limp hand in his own
and shook it cordially, and at the same time made a handsome apology for
his own share of the misunderstanding.

"Your Worship must excuse me," he said, "but I'm always apt to be a bit
suspicious about lawyers. What dealings I've had with them have nearly
always t