it? What of my back,
thou awkward earthquake! Thou plow-beast! A devil sit on thee! A
devil drive thee! A devil eat thee!"

_Whack! Whack!_

"Oh my bones! My old bones!"

Mujrim was the first to recognize the voice. He got up quietly
and stood in the gorge; and in another minute a blot of denser
blackness that was a camel loomed above him, and he raised his
hand to seize the head-rope. But the camel saw him first, and,
realizing that the journey was over at last, flung itself to the
ground with the abandon of a foundered dog, and lay with its neck
stretched out straight and legs all straddled anyhow. Mujrim was
just in time to catch his father, who was nearly as tired as the
camel. It was pretty obvious at once that Jael's authority had
failed badly when it came to exchanging camels.

The sons all surrounded the old man and made a fuss over him,
laying him down on a sheepskin coat and chafing his stiff
muscles, calling him brave names, rubbing his feet, patting his
hands, praising him, while he swore at them each time they
touched a sore spot.

They would not even give him a chance to hand over his letter
to Grim, until at last he swore so savagely that Mujrim paid
attention and took the letter out of the old man's waistcloth. It
was in the same envelop in which the other had gone, unsealed,
but with the thumb-mark of Ibrahim ben Ah imprinted on its face.

"To think that I, of all people, should fetch and carry for such
dogs!" swore Ali Baba. "I asked for a good beast in exchange for
mine, and they gave me this crow's meat, and laughed! May Allah
change their faces! May the water of that oasis turn their bowels
into stone!

"Aye, Jimgrim, they will stay there! They are glad enough to stay
there. They are dogs that fear their master's whip. They are so
afraid of him that I think if Ali Higg should bid them roast
themselves alive the dogs would do it. May they roast a second
time in hell for giving me that camel.

"Bah! What kind of sons have I? Are these the sons of my loins
that let me parch? Is there no water-bag?"

Grim struck a match in the dark corner where the camels were; but
all the envelop contained was a piece of jagged paper torn from
the original letter, with Ibrahim ben Ah's thumb-mark done
in ink made from gunpowder by way of acknowledgment. It meant,
presumably, that instructions would be obeyed, and so far, good;
we were not now in danger of trouble from that source.

But Ali Baba found hi