British territory and
deportation. So she wrote, and Grim sealed the letter: He handed
it to Ali Baba.

"Select the most trustworthy of your sons, O King of Thieves,
give him the fastest camel, and let him ride with that to the
oasis. Bid him ride hard and overtake us with the answer."

"Do you think my sons have wings?" asked Ali Baba.

"Not unless devils are winged!" laughed Grim. "It is a simple
matter--just there and back again."

"Not so simple, Jimgrim! It is written that in the desert all men
are enemies. What if he should meet a dozen men?"

"The letter will be his pass. He must take a chance returning."

_"Wallahi!_ A letter? A pass into Jehannum possibly! By Allah,
Jimgrim, a man needs more than a letter in these parts. He needs
brains--age--influence--experience. Nay! If any is to take that
letter, let me do it. I am old, and they hesitate to kill an old
man. I am wise in the desert ways, not rash. And if they do kill
me, then it is only an old man's body bloating in the sun.

"Besides, I am cunning and can give wise answers, whereas those
sons of mine might take offense at an insult, or recognize a
blood enemy at the wrong moment. Nay, it is I who must take
that letter."

Grim clapped him on the back.

"Good, my father; you shall go. Take one son with you to look
after your comforts."

He turned that suggestion over in his mind for several minutes,
but shook his head finally.

"I go alone. They would ask me why two men bring one letter.
Moreover, they might send the one back with an answer, retaining
the other as hostage; for it is the way of the devil to put
suspicion in men's minds. Two men would double their doubt, just
as two stones weigh the twice of one. And I will not take the
best camel, but the worst one."

"Why?"

"Write me a second letter. Have the woman write it, and you affix
the seal. Give order that they are to provide a swift, fresh
camel in exchange for my weary beast. I shall make a great fuss
about the beast they provide, rejecting this and that one, thus
causing them to believe in me, since men without proper authority
do not act thus, but are content with anything so be they can
only escape unharmed."

So the second letter was written; and in the rising, scorching
heat old Ali Baba set off, mounted on the meanest of the baggage
beasts, whose hump was getting galled, so that he wasn't likely
to be of much use to us within a day or so.

Then we all got under the shel