"Socony Vacuum," Abdul said.
They toiled up the face of the cliff. At once, half a dozen of the white-robed gallery fell in behind them. When Colonel Glinka stopped and looked back, they stopped. When he continued upon his way, they continued.
"Have they no homes to which to go?" he complained. "Have they nothing to do?"
"They are a very backward people, who live in the open," Abdul said. "They do not work."
"How, then, do the wretches live? Wall Street charity, I presume."
"Oh, no, when they are not able to forage, the Sidi Doctor Stephens feeds them."
"The reactionary old fool! But you may be sure that they knew how to work in the old days, before he came."
"I do not think so."
"And why, in your ageless wisdom, not?"
"Because the Sidi Doctor made them," Abdul Hakkim ben Salazar said.