Several hours later Jack and Lieutenant Edwards were taking coffee with the Sheik on a priceless rug before his tent in the desert. The lieutenant was too familiar with Arab customs to come to the object of his visit at once, so it was late in the afternoon when he finally brought up the subject.
“Sheik, what is the present attitude of your people toward the Italian aggressors?” he asked at length.
Abu ben Sedar was wary.
“Why do you ask that?” he demanded.
“Why,” explained the lieutenant, “I know that you have led more than one uprising, and I know the Arab nature too well to think they will kiss the hand that strikes them down. The spirit of the desert will rise again. Even now I have heard rumors——”
“'Tis as you say,” exclaimed the Sheik excitedly, springing to his feet. “We shall never submit to Italian rule. They have treated us like dogs. But we are biding our time. We need rifles, ammunition, money.”
“And that is why I have sought you out,” declared the lieutenant.
“You mean you have come to help us shake off the yoke of the oppressor?”
“Exactly. I am authorized to offer you arms for fifteen thousand men and silver enough to keep them all in the field for several months; in return for which, when victorious, you are to sign over eight hundred square miles of coast territory to the German government.
“But,” the Sheik protested, “I own no such land, nor do I know anyone who does. Even if the Italians were driven out I could not justly claim it.”