Grim made considerable fuss with two envelopes, addressing both, and sealing one inside the other. He evidently wanted to be seen doing that —wanted Ali Higg to see it; so I asked him in Arabic, why two envelopes? There was no need to answer me, because Ali Higg made it clear that he was watching and listening. Jael, too, swallowed down her rage and faced about. Grim addressed himself to Yussuf.
“What do you want me to do with you?” he asked.
“Father of irony! What a question! Jaffa is my home. I was on my way thither when your honors decided otherwise. As a fish yearns for the sea I long for Jaffa.”
“Can you make your way alone?”
“Inshallah.”
“Would you like to try?”
“Give me but your permission and a camel, and see me put the telegraph to shame!”
“If I give you a letter to take to Jerusalem, will you deliver it?”
“Father of surprises! What is in the letter? Shall I carry then an order for my own arrest?”
“No. But there is an order inside that you are to be paid a full week’s wages as a messenger, provided you deliver the letter without delay.”
“Allah ykafik anni!”*
(* God reward you on my behalf.)
“You know what will probably happen if Ali Higg’s men catch you?”
“Trust me! I know the dogs! They will find it easier to catch the wind!”
“And you know what will happen to your Jaffa property if you try to play a trick on me?”
“Your honors had no need to say that. I am a loyal man.”
“I know you for a spy-for-both-sides,” answered Grim. “If one overtook you on the way and offered you money for the letter I shall give you, it would be your natural course to take the money and let the letter go. That is why I warn you about your Jaffa property. If you part with the one you shall lose the other.”
“Trust me!”
“I don’t trust you. I offer you payment and impose conditions. I give you clearly to understand that failure to deliver that letter in Jerusalem will involve a definite and heavy penalty. Now choose: will you carry the letter or remain here?”
“As well ask a thirsty man what he will do for a drink of water! Give me the letter!”
Grim gave it to him, and Jael returned into the cave to talk with Ali Higg. Despite the booing she had recently received, Ayisha got up and walked back toward the women’s quarters as if she had forgotten something, and we saw no more of her for several hours. Grim’s whole manner changed instantly. With a glance over his shoulder to make sure that neither Ali Higg could see him, he pulled out a loaded Army revolver from under his cloak and passed it to Yussuf along with a handful of extra cartridges.
“Now go!” he ordered in a low voice. “One of Ali Baba’s sons shall go below with you and pick you out a camel. Ride straight for that oasis where Ali Higg’s army is camped.”
“But they will capture me!”
“Listen, will you! If you go now you’ll get there about nightfall. I don’t think they’ll be there, but if you see their camp-fires, make your camel kneel, and wait until they’re gone. Better approach the oasis from the northward. They’ll move off toward the south. The minute they’re out of sight, feed your camel and then make for El-Mann; from there on to Jerusalem the way is easy.”
“But—”
“You have your orders. Go!”
One of Ali Baba’s sons went along with him to select a camel, and nobody except Yussuf worried on that score. We all knew which critter he would get; there was only one worthless specimen. Old Ali Baba laughed.
“The crows will say Allah is kind!” he remarked. “They would prefer to pick the bones of a fatter man, but any corpse is meat to them! Both Jael and the Lion know he carries that agreement. Father of ruses, he will be dead and they will have the letter before midnight; but why? What is to be gained by that?”
“Nothing,” Grim answered. “But he’ll live and they won’t have it, if you ride hard.”
“I?”
“Surely—you. The men at the oasis know you. I’m going to give you another letter presently, which Ali Higg will sign, ordering Ibrahim ben Ah to take those men southward at once and meet us at a place in the desert half-way between here and Abu Lissan. Take the best camel we’ve got, and keep to the southward. You’ll reach the oasis well ahead of Yussuf. The Lion is sure to want to send either Jael herself or one of his own men instead of you; but I shall insist on your going. Then either the Lion or Jael will probably give you another letter with secret orders to Ibrahim ben Ah to capture Yussuf, kill him or bribe him, and take his letter from him. They’ll very likely bribe you: in that case accept the bribe, but don’t do what they say. Tear their letter up, or burn it in the desert. I think Yussuf will get through; at any rate, I’ve given him his chance.”
“And if not?” I interrupted.
“Then, as Ali Baba remarked, the crows will eat him.”
“That’s Yussuf’s end of it,” said I. “But how about us? There’ll be nothing then to keep the Lion and Jael from turning on us. They’ll have that precious letter to the bank back, and—
“Not they,” Grim answered, smiling. “That letter to the bank is still in my pocket. If by some accident they happen to capture Yussuf all they’ll find out is that I didn’t give it to him after all. If they don’t capture him —as I hope they won’t—they’ll still think he had it. They’re likely not to turn on us until they’ve got that piece of paper back, but they’d surely try to murder me if they believed it was on my person. I’d sooner they had it in for Yussuf! And at that, we’ve given Yussuf a better chance for his life than he’d have had if we left him here with Ali Higg.”
He said all that in English to me in a low voice, and Ali Baba, leaning past me to listen, only picked a word out here and there. I had to translate it for him; and when I had finished he sat meditating for a minute or two, with an expression on his wrinkled old face like that of a man watching a motion picture—as if somewhere in the distance he were visualizing all the details on a screen.
“Wallahi! That is good,” he said at last. “I am an old man. I lack sleep; and my bones are weary. But a man can play such a part proudly. There is cunning in it. Allah! What a thief was lost when Jimgrim took to soldiering! I will carry word for him to Ibrahim ben Ah if it is my last ride, and if they crucify me at the other end! But I am an old fox and, inshallah, no fool follower of Ali Higg shall not suspect me of a trick.”
He was so enamored of the plan that he had to get his sons and grandsons in a circle on the ledge and explain it all to them, pointing out the pros and cons of it, and delivering a final lecture on the general art of practicing deception.
“None of us would ever have been in gaol if we had known as much as Jimgrim,” I heard him say. “Observe: Jimgrim has their order on the bank for fifty thousand pounds. Let us suppose that Ali Higg and his wife Jael are the police. They know he has it. Does he bury it? Does he run away? He is no such fool. He lets them see him give it to another; he provides as far as possible that the other shall get safely away; and all the while he keeps the order in his pocket! Remains nothing but to provide a messenger for the police, who will surely not deliver their message; and he thinks of that,