“Is it for the servant to know the mind of his master?”
“And if I don’t go?”
The Pasha pointed to his men, and motioned towards the boat where forty or fifty others showed. “Bosh, Pasha! That’s no reason. That’s flummery, and you know and the Highness knows it. That would have been all very well in the desert, but this is not the desert, and I’m not doing business with the Highness any more. What’s the penalty if I don’t go?”
“Twenty men will lose their heads to-morrow morning, a riot will occur, the bank where much gold is will be broken into, some one will be made poor, and—”
“Come, never mind twaddle about my money—we’ll see about that. Those twenty men—my men?”
“Your men, saadat el bey.”
“They’re seized?”
“They are in prison.”
“Where?”
“At Abdin Palace.”