in the sun repeating the back-and-forth
rigmarole of Arab greeting if that meant that Ali Baba and his
sixteen sons and grandsons were to be our companions on the
adventure. They followed us at last into the governorate, and sat
down on the hall carpet with the air of men who know what fun the
future holds.

Narayan Singh stayed out in the hall and looked them over. There
is something in the make-up of the Sikh that, while it gives
him to understand the strength and weaknesses of almost any
alien race, yet constrains him more or less to the policeman's
viewpoint. It isn't a moral viewpoint exactly; he doesn't
invariably disapprove; but he isn't deceived as to the possibilities,
and yields no jot or tittle of the upper hand if he can only once
assume it. There was scant love lost between him and old Ali Baba.

_"Nharak said,_* O ye thieves!" he remarked, looking down into
Ali Baba's mild old eyes. [* Greeting!]

Squatting in loose-flowing robes, princely bred, and almost
saintly with his beautiful gray beard, the patriarch looked frail
enough to be squashed under the Sikh's enormous thumb. But he
wasn't much impressed.

"God give thee good sense, Sikh!" was the prompt answer.

"Fear Allah, and eschew infidelity while there is yet time!"
boomed a man as big as the Sikh and a third as heavy again--Ali
Baba's eldest son, a sunny-tempered rogue, as I knew from
past experience.

"Whose husband have you put to shame by fathering those two
brats?" asked a third man.

Mahommed that was, Ali Baba's youngest, who had saved Grim's life
and mine at El-Kerak.

They all laughed uproariously at that jest, so Mahommed repeated
it more pointedly, and the Sikh turned his back to consider the
sunshine through the open door and the rising heat within.
Suliman and the other little gutter-snipe proceeded to make
friends with the whole gang promptly, giving as good as they got
in the way of repartee, and nearly starting a riot until Grim
called Ali Baba into the dining-room, where de Crespigny was
shaking up the second round of warm cocktails in a beer-bottle.

Ali Baba chose to presume that the mixture was intended for
himself. The instant de Crespigny set the bottle on the table the
old rascal tipped the lot into a tumbler and drank it off.

"It is good that the Koran says nothing against such stuff as
this," he said, blinking as he set the glass down. "I have never
tasted wine," he added righteously.

"Are the camels ready?