is perjury was scarcely
technical. Anyhow, I am not the recording angel. And Grim said,
being a more cautious liar than the rest of us:

"Therefore, O Lion of Petra, mercy is due to the lady Ayisha,
seeing that the end in view was good, although the means
were questionable."

But Jael Higg looked daggers at her lord. She had made up her
mind to reduce that establishment by one at least; and Ali Higg,
looking in her eyes, read what all polygamous husbands have had
to face ever since the day when Abraham was forced to drive
out Hagar into the wilderness. So he pronounced one of those
Solomon-like judgments that are the secret of a man's rule over
men in that land, granting to each contender the whole of what he
asked, yet having his own way in the bargain.

"I find she is not worthy of death," he said, "since she played a
trick that brought me comfort. Yet I will not endure a woman's
tricks, nor condone the offense. I divorce her. Before witnesses
I say she is divorced."

It's a simple affair in that land, isn't it?

But there were matters not so simple to attend to, and Grim saw
fit to waste no further time.

"I said I come as a friend," he resumed.

"I heard it!" the Lion answered dryly.

"Without boasting, I have saved you from destruction, while
delivering your purchases from El-Kalil. And I have done your
name no harm, but good on the country-side."

"Allah! How have you saved me from destruction?"

"By preventing that unwise raid on El-Maan."

_"Wallahi!_ Do you think my men could not have accomplished it?"

"Maybe. Do you think the British would be fools enough to let
that go unpunished? The El-Maan people would surely have appealed
to them. Aeroplanes would have been sent to bomb you out of
Petra. Can you fight aeroplanes?"

"The British do not pretend to rule on this side of the Jordan,"
the Lion retorted.

"No. Do you want them to pretend to?"

"Allah forbid!"

"Then take a friend's advice, O Ali Higg, and keep the peace here
rather than make war."

"That is good advice; but will the British make a treaty with me?"

"No," Grim answered, smiling. "By that they would recognize
you as a ruler, which they will not do until they surely know
you rule."

_"Mashallah!_ How shall men know that I am a ruler unless I make
war and enforce my will?"

"Have I made war on you?" asked Grim. "Have I disarmed you, or
killed one man? Yet I enforce my will, as you shall see."

"By a trick! You played