ands on
you. So let's talk like two sensible people."

"You'll find me sensible," she answered. "I shall just do
nothing--tell you nothing."

"You've told too much already to be able to stop now, Jael," he
answered, smiling. "I'm sure you won't put me to the necessity of
searching you; you've too much pride for that. So suppose you
pass me Ali Higg's seal--the one you sign all his letters with.
No, don't try to hide it in the sand; put it here."

He held his hand out, and she bit her lip in mortification. It
was too bad that she had made that slip of boasting to Narayan
Singh and me about the seal, but there was nothing else for it
now and she gave it to him--a gold thing as big as a silver
half-dollar, marvelously engraved.

"That settles the financial end of it," said Grim. "We can
impound all that money in the Bank of Egypt--although I'm free to
admit I wouldn't take such a seal away from a friend of mine."

"Give it back, then," she answered with a bitter little laugh. "I
see I'll have to be your friend."

He smiled--wonderfully gently. There wasn't the least offense in
it, although there wasn't any credulity either.

"I always aim to prove myself a man's friend--or a woman's," he
said, "before expecting to be trusted out of sight. I dare say
that's your code too?"

"If ever Ali Higg catches you with that seal--"

"He won't catch me, Jael; he won't catch me. But you shall have
it back, and the money shan't be touched, if you play straight."

She shrugged her shoulders petulantly, admitting defeat but
resenting it. There came a time, months later, when she understood
Grim's peculiar altruism and respected it, but she was a long
way just then from admiring him.

"You force me," she said. "Name your terms."

"Well, then, suppose we speak of Ali Higg to begin with. Is his
temper uneven? Is there any way to catch him in a specially
good humor?"

"He's the most even-tempered man I know," she laughed. "He's
always in a rage."

"So much the easier for us," Grim answered. "That kind always
make mistakes. He must have counted on your brains exclusively to
keep him on top; and now your brains are in my pocket, so to
speak. How's his health? Boils? Indigestion?"

She nodded.

"Ah! Most angry men have indigestion. Dislikes European doctors,
I dare say? Thought so; most fanatical Moslems do that. But an
Indian _hakim?_ Now, many an Indian _hakim_ knows how to relieve
indigestion--in between the bouts of ra