“You’d better take some men with you.”
“Aye, sahib—four men if I may choose them.”
“Will you go in disguise?”
“Not I! We will take rifles with bayonets, wear our uniforms and bring back that iblis in the name of a Sikh, whose head is no proper target for roof-stones. There is honor involved.”
“All right.”
Jim made arrangements for Narayan Singh to have the selection of four volunteers, and got written permits for them all to leave camp after dark. Then he returned to Aaronsohn.
* * * * *
The Zionist had lit the lamp and was reading a Hebrew magazine in Jim’s chair with that peculiar manner of armed intensity that characterizes the thinkers of the movement. His Vandyke beard and thin, Semitic nose, and a narrow shawl thrown loosely over his shoulders, made him look in that uncertain light like one of the statesmen-priests who used to intrigue in medieval history.
“Now I’m at your service.”
“I have come to appeal to you as a fellow American, Major Grim.”
“Don’t forget I’m in British uniform.”
“I am also an American, as it were in service under British rules and regulations.”
“The positions seem different to me. However—”
“You are the only American in British uniform to whom I can appeal. I am not under arrest for the present. They have spared me that indignity, although I understand that General Jenkins demanded it.
“I am charged with plotting to steal British rifles, and with hiding them under the floor of our store-shed, where they were discovered this morning by a Captain Ticknor. Now I know nothing about those rifles. We have never used that space beneath the floor. We only hire the place.
“I have no notion how the rifles got there; how should I have? I am only quite sure that no Zionist had a hand in it, for I know what every Zionist in Ludd has been doing all the time. But how can I prove it?
“I am told you exposed a plot against Zionists in Jerusalem. Will you help us now?”
Jim sat down on the bed and smiled. Aaronsohn took the smile for mere politeness covering hesitation, and turned loose all his persuasive power.
“Whatever your racial prejudices, Major Grim, the predicament we Zionist are placed in surely must appeal to you. On the one hand the British Government promises us everything—a national home for Jews in Palestine—assistance—fair play; and some of their officers try to make good that promise. I give them full credit. They haven’t much intelligence from our point of view, but they act according to their lights.
“On the other hand some of the officers, General Jenkins among them, stop at nothing to put us in a bad light, and do everything within their power to handicap us in every way. Such men have even less intelligence than the others, but their official position gives them opportunity.”
“The British are not all fools,” said Jim.
“That is after all a matter of opinion. Certainly some of them are just according to their lights; but it is the very sense of justice that I dread in this instance.
“General Anthony will order a court martial on me and a handful of others. All the officers who are anti-Zionist will exert themselves to discover circumstantial evidence against us. We have none whatever—”
“Oh, yes, you have,” said Jim.
“But what? I have been allowed to visit the place since the discovery, and it is true that it can be shown that the rifles were carried in through a door connecting with a place next door that is own by Arabs.
“But they will answer, ‘What does that prove?’ Only that we paid Arabs to do the stealing for us! I am told that Ibrahim Charkas, who is the worst kind of criminal, will swear that we Zionist paid him.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Jim. “I think I know enough to prick that bubble. I’ll provide you with some evidence when the time comes.”
“But what? What do you know? Tell me—I insist.”
“It ’ud take too long,” said Jim. “Besides, the value of what I know largely depends on my discovering something else that seems to have nothing to do with it. I’m interested in that just now. I’m at my wits’ end, and want time to think.”
“Let me try to help you. We will help each other.”
“You can’t help.”
“How do you know? State the case and try me.”
“I must find an Arab named Sayed Haurani, who was talking to Captain Catesby by halfway between the station and the town on the afternoon of the third between five and six o’clock. I need him in a hurry.”
Aaronsohn looked startled.
“I suppose you have orders to gather further evidence against Zionists?” he asked acidly.
“No.”
It was Jim’s turn to sit up and take notice.
“Is Sayed Haurani a Zionist? Of course he isn’t. But what d’you know of him?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“To save Captain Catesby from being cashiered on a false charge.”
“Sayre Haurani was my messenger. I dismissed him on that occasion for returning an hour late from the station, because I disbelieved his story.”
Jim lay back on the bed and threw his legs in the air.
“Can you find him?” he asked.
“Certainly.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“The chain’s complete! Go and find him. Produce him at eight o’clock tomorrow morning in General Anthony’s office and the world’s your oyster!”
“I have no desire to eat a world on the half-shell, Major Grim.”
“You shall have Jenkins’ head on a slaver!”
“Pardon me, I am not Salome.”
“What in thunder could a man want more than that? Go on, Aaronsohn—find your man! Produce him at eight A.M. and leave the rest to me.”
In vain Aaronsohn coaxed, cajoled and persuaded. Jim shut up like a clam; but his eyes betrayed such infinite enjoyment that even Aaronsohn at last took comfort from it and went away to find the discharged messenger.
* * * * *
The minute he was gone, Jim went over to Catesby’s tent and called out to him, standing between the sentries rather that run the risk of stirring Jenkins any further by being seen entering the tent.
“All right, old son, you’re cleared. Be at headquarters at eight o’clock. They’ll fetch you anyhow.”
“What’s happened?”
“Good news, that’s all. Go to sleep and dream about promotion.”
From there he went straight to General Anthony, who looked worried. He called Jim into an inner room and shut the door.
“What’s at the bottom of all this, Grim? Have you any idea?
“It looks to me as if Jenkins is going to get away with murder once again. He has got the whole camp by the ears. We shall have the provost-marshal sending in his resignation next. After that I suppose there’ll be a decoration sent out from