promises would make us laugh," said the Sikh.

"How much will your sheikh ever pay you? In an hour I will show
you a _wady_ down which we three can escape. Agree to that and
you shall have five thousand each the same hour that we
reach Petra."

_"Wallahi!_ Doubtless!" laughed Narayan Singh. "Five thousand
bastinados each from Ali Higg, while the queen bee laughs at us
for fools! Nay, lady Jael, you are Jimgrim's prisoner."

"Jimgrim!" she said. "Somewhere I have heard that name."

And she turned it over in her mind again like a taster trying
wine, not speaking again for nearly an hour, until we drew
abreast of a chaos of irregular great boulders that partly
concealed the mouth of a gorge as dark and ugly as the throat
of Tophet.

"There is your chance!" she said. "Will you take it? You shall
have employment with the Lion of Petra! Come!"

But neither of us answered, and I kept a bright lookout for a
pistol she still might have concealed on her; for she had not
been searched--there was none who could do that with decency
except Ayisha, who was not to be trusted.

I knew Grim would not halt again before morning because the
camels would not feed properly until after daylight, even if you
put corn in front of them. We were likely in for a forced march
on Petra, and he would not choose to halt twice if it could be
helped. And I supposed that when we did halt he would look to
Narayan Singh and me for information.

Yet Mrs. Ali Higg number one was hardly a person you could expect
to answer questions truthfully; and even until the stars began to
grow pale in the east ahead of us I possessed my soul in patience.

Then: "Is it money your Sheikh Jimgrim wants?" she asked at last.
"Does he hold me to ransom? If so, I will give him a draft on
the Bank of Egypt. I have Ali Higg's seal here, and I write
all his letters."

I did not answer, but Narayan Singh checked his camel a stride or
two to make a signal to me behind her back.

"Hah!" he remarked with an air of triumph. And I took that to
mean that in his judgment Jimgrim could find use for Ali
Higg's seal.

But of course she heard him, and she took it to mean that she had
guessed rightly. She turned to Narayan Singh; and because in that
land, as an almost invariable rule, no business with a chief can
be accomplished without bribing his minions, she worked off a
little spite and offered largesse with the same hand.

"Arrange good terms for me and you shall have A