“Why, what fresh doubts do you feel?”
“Over this dumb business. There seem to be always fresh difficulties cropping up.”
“Seem,” said the professor coolly. “Things that seem are generally like clouds: they soon fade away in the sunshine. What is the new ‘seem’?”
“About the Sheikh’s men. Now, for instance, they must notice that I am talking to you.”
“Of course they do, my lad. You may take it for granted that they know quite as much as we do, and that they grasp the fact that we are playing parts to deceive the dervishes.”
“And sooner or later, out of no ill-will, but by accident, they will betray us.”
“Take it for granted that they will not do anything of the sort. These Arabs are narrow-minded, and there is a good deal of the savage about them in connection with their carelessness regarding human life. But my experience of the Arab is, that he is a gentleman, and I would as soon trust one whom I had made my friend as I would a man of any nation. Now then, I’ve knocked that difficulty on the head. What is the next?”
“There are no more at present,” said Frank, smiling. “I suppose, then, that I need not keep trying to play my part while we are in company with our own party only?”
“Certainly not, my dear boy,” said the professor. “Your great difficulty really is to contain yourself fully when strangers are with us.”
“I shall try my best,” said Frank.