." Few men of spirit could resist a
challenge such as that, which is indeed to urge men on to robbery. But
where the master trusts his servants and leaves all things to their
care, only a son of infamy would dream of robbing him.'

'Let me propound the matter otherwise for understanding. Seeing that
open vineyard, with a wall but two stones high, no man would think of
plundering the crop of grapes. But surround that vineyard with a high,
strong wall, and every son of Adam will conceive the project of
clearing it of every cluster.'

'I should never think of such a thing.'

'That is because your Honour is accustomed to restraints and
barriers,' said Suleyman. 'We, in the Sultan's dominions, have more
freedom, praise to Allah! For us a high wall is an insult, save in
cities.'

CHAPTER XXXI

THE ATHEIST

Though I had known Suleyman for nearly two years, and had had him with
me for some six months of that time, I had never seen him in his
function of a dragoman, by which he earned enough in two months of the
year to keep a wife and children in a village of the coasts of Tyre
and Sidon, of which he spoke with heart-moving affection, though he
seldom went there. It was only after much insistence that he allowed
us to conduct him thither on one memorable occasion, when I could not
but admire his perfect manners as a despot. When first I met him he
had been a gentleman at large, and it was as that, and a familiar
friend, that he repaired to me whenever he had nothing else to do.
Judging from his gifts of conversation, which we all admired, and his
unbounded knowledge of the country, I thought that, as a guide for
tourists, he would be invaluable. So, when I heard that English
friends of mine were coming out to Palestine, I wrote advising them to
ask for him, him only; and I was glad to hear soon afterwards that he
was with them. When they came north, I joined the party at Damascus
and travelled with them for their last fortnight.

It did not take me many minutes in the camp to see that Suleyman was
not himself, and that my friends were not so charmed with him as I had
thought they would be. On the first evening in their tent I heard
complaints. They told me he was most unconscionably lazy, and would
not take them to the places they desired to visit. The trouble was, as
I soon learnt, that they possessed a map and guidebook which they
studied reverently every night, finding out places said therein to be
of inter