"Watty," said Hugh, "go down into the sewer-treasury and collect a sack of jewels—anything will do. Tell Tokalji I'm sending for an earnest of our good-faith, Nikka."
Avarice glowed in the brigand's face. Wasso Mikali looked disgusted. He nursed some secret grudge of his own against Tokalji, and had wanted to cut his throat from the minute he discovered the scoundrel was our prisoner. But Hugh's hunch was a good one. None could doubt that as Tokalji gradually thawed under the influence of his stimulated acquisitive instincts.
And when Watty tramped in fifteen minutes afterward and plumped a bulging sack into the old thief's lap a miracle was wrought. Sweat beaded on his forehead; his hands clawed the lovely stones; his eyes shone; he cackled to himself and crooned like a mother over her baby.
"Tell him they are his, and that we will add gold to them, if he plays fair with us," continued Hugh when he judged he had made his effect. "But he will have to remain our prisoner until we leave.'
"He awaits your orders," Nikka translated the reply, as Tokalji regretfully tore his attention from the treasure on his knees. "Wait a minute." This last as Tokalji burst into a tumult of excited speech. "He says for you not to worry about Mahkouf Pasha. He knows all about the Pasha. He, the Pasha, has been smuggling arms from Roumania to Kemal Pasha at Angora, and Tokalji has played a part in the business."
Hugh just grinned, and the rest of us grinned back at him.
"We are indeed fortunate," remarked King.
"Fortunate your eye!" returned Hugh with jubilant disrespect. "I knew such precious scoundrels would sell each other out. Now, Nikka, you tell Tokalji he is to inform Mahkouf Pasha that he regards us as his friends, inasmuch as we relieved him last night from the oppression of a band of thieves. And we'll have Mahkouf in here, and give him an earful. I suppose we'll have to drag in that poor Hilyer woman, too. I hate that. But she'll have to be made to understand her position."
The interview that followed was absurd and sordid. Mahkouf Pasha, after an attempt at hectoring defiance, collapsed completely and begged to be let alone. Nikka, who handled him, squelched him to putty, and told Wasso Mikali to see him to the street.
"And remember," Nikka concluded, "if you dare to breathe a word against us, you Levantine dog, we will show you up for what you are to the Allied High Commissioners, to your master the Grand Vizier and to the Nationalists at Angora. You have played all three of these, one against the others, and all three will be glad to hang you. Go, before I kick you!"