that all of us except Ayisha ate breakfast together on the roof—women don’t eat with the men—and a devilish nasty mess it was, concocted of rice, powdered coconut, camel-butter, turmeric and the flesh of a goat that had been bleating less than an hour before.
The Avenger went through the form of eating salt with Ali Higg, but without enthusiasm, and insisted on referring to him as the Dog of Petra.
Then Grim drew up the agreement in triplicate, to which we all attached our signatures; and I don’t know what law I broke, or what the penalty should be, but I set down an Indian name in the place reserved for me, and gave my address as Lahore, Punjab, India.
Since we were all dog-tired it was agreed that we should sleep the day through in Abu Lissan, and all of us go our separate ways that evening. Grim would have been quite contented to take the Avenger’s word for our safety, and so would I; but when word was sent to Ali Baba about it, he turned up within the hour with his sons and grandsons, and insisted on their taking one-hour turns on guard.
“For men are like camels in this: That they dream dreams,” he remarked dryly. “One who should dream that he was murdered while he slept might possibly not wake again.”
So they spread rugs and mats on the floor of the long second-floor passage, and we sent up such a chorus of snores as I dare say that roof had never echoed to before. But I know the Avenger didn’t sleep much, and don’t suppose Ayisha did. The Avenger sat in conference in a small room with the m’allim, discussing all the intricacies of marriage to another man’s wife.
Fortunately the Avenger had only three wives, and the Koran permits four; fortunately, too, the Prophet Mohammed had set the precedent, by demanding the young wife of his faithful follower, Ali, and, better still, obtaining her.
The m’allim said it was good doctrine that the willingness of Ali Higg to part with her constituted full divorce, and whether or not duress might have had anything to do with his consent made no difference. The lady’s preferences having no kind of bearing on the case, Ayisha was not consulted.
But she was satisfied—no doubt of that. I think she admired Grim more than any man she had ever known; but tribal history was in her veins, as it is in every man’s and woman’s.
What she wanted was an influential husband, and she had one, for which she was as grateful to Grim as a stray cat for a saucer of milk. It was up to her to establish a position for herself among the senior wives, and by the look in her eye I should say she felt like doing it.
About four in the afternoon she asked leave of the Avenger to go and select the fifty men who were to constitute her dowry. Ali Higg demanded to go with her, to prevent her taking all the best; so Grim went too, and our whole party rode with Grim to prevent any last-minute treachery on the Lion’s part.
It was a good job that we all went in the circumstances. There was a new arrival behind that sugar-loaf hill, and a real re-enforcement after all. Jael Higg, constitutionally restless, opportunist always, huntress with all hounds and runner with all hares in sight—everlastingly haunted, too, by doubt of Ali Higg’s ability—had scraped together every last man Petra could produce, and brought them to the scene, trusting to her own sharp wit to use them to the best advantage. She had scraped together nearly fifty, including some women, but they were a rather bob-tailed lot and their camels were living skeletons.
Ali Higg tried to avoid her, but there wasn’t much of the retiring arbutus about Jael. She tackled him in front of us all, and tongue-lashed him bitterly when she had dragged the story out of him, he trying in return to assert his overlordship, but with small success. The part that seemed to sting her most was the discovery that Grim had all along retained that order on the bank.
She advanced toward him with her thin lips quivering nervously, and cold hatred glaring from her eyes; and we all closed in, to prevent murder.
“So you kept that letter, did you? Clever, aren’t you, Jimgrim! You’ve fooled me at every turn, haven’t you? Proud, aren’t you, to have me in money-hobbles for three years to come? Very well; you won this time, but wait and see!”
“I’ve left you lots to build with, Jael, if you’ll only build to the line,” he answered kindly.
“Left me lots—and fifty men and camels to go with that wandering gypsy Ayisha? Bah! You’ve skinned me to the bone. Ayisha may take these that I brought with me today.”
But Ayisha was already choosing her contingent, and there was no reluctance to be chosen. Changing to the stronger side and a less irascible leader had its obvious advantages. Jael rushed off to interfere, and Ayisha cocked her rifle instantly.
Quick work by Ali Baba’s men prevented that duel. Half a dozen of them pounced on Jael from behind and pinned her arms behind her, and the rest got in position to spoil Ayisha’s aim. Ayisha threatened to shoot through them, but they laughed at her, and at a word from Grim she put her rifle up. Then Grim went and stood in front of Jael, but did not tell Ali Baba’s men to let go her hands.
“See here, Jael, old girl,” he said, “you’re nervous and jumpy. You’ll be doing something you’ll regret if you don’t watch points. Suppose you take that Lion of yours and your remaining men, and head straight back for Petra before you make your trouble any worse.”
“Let me go, then.”
“Say the word, Jimgrim, and we cut her throat,” Ali Baba called out from behind.
Beyond holding his hand up as a signal for nothing doing, Grim did not answer. He walked up to Ali Higg instead, and ordered him to take his men away. The Lion obeyed readily enough; he was sick of the whole business, and desperately eager to get back into his cave, where he could growl himself into better spirits.
There was delay at the last minute, owing to the fact that many more than fifty men, including Ibrahim ben Ah, wanted to stay with Ayisha; but Ayisha had chosen her contingent and lined them up. Grim gave the rest thirty seconds to start after Ali Higg. He didn’t say what the consequences would be if they refused; but there were a couple of hundred of the Avenger’s men within hail, and they might imagine what they liked.
* * * *
When the last of the Lion’s men was about two hundred yards away Grim ordered Jael released and her camel brought to her. Ali Baba wanted to keep her weapons, but Grim disallowed that. She mounted and rode away without a word of farewell, and Ali Baba croaked out his opinion that hornets’ stings are usually in their tails. But Grim laughed.
Jael did turn once, at about two hundred yards’ range, and threaten Grim with her rifle; but as every single one of Ali Baba’s men promptly took aim at her she thought better of it.
“We’ve not had quite the last of that lady, I suspect; she still has one chance left, and overlooks no bets,” said Grim.
That one chance was obviously to waylay us on our road home; and, seeing that Grim had added fifty to his force, the Avenger was kind enough to offer us an escort of a hundred men as far as the British frontier. But if Grim had agreed to that there would have been a fight in all likelihood, which in itself would constitute excuse for treating the signed agreement as a scrap of paper. If only one shot were fired by Jael’s men, the Avenger would interpret that as breach of faith and act accordingly.
So Grim insisted on the treaty being carried out in full. We said good-by to the Avenger and Ayisha, and stood by at dusk to see the whole force file southward out of Abu Lissan.
The Avenger’s last words as he shook Grim’s hand were ominous:
“By Allah and the Prophet’s body, Jimgrim, I shall hold thee to our terms! If no occasion rises to summon thee to my aid in a difficulty, may Allah change my face and roll me in the dust unless I make one!”
Ayisha didn’t forget her obligations. She came and kissed Grim’s hand, and gave him her amber necklace.
“If I have a new husband and am once more a princess, I am none the less beholden to thee for it,” she said prettily.
And because Grim