Nahoum fingered his beads meditatively. “It was an affair of the housetops in his town of Manfaloot. I have only mentioned it because I know what view the English take of killing, and how set thou art to have thy household above reproach, as is meet in a Christian home. So, I took it, would be thy mind—which Heaven fill with light for Egypt’s sake!—that thou wouldst have none about thee who were not above reproach, neither liars, nor thieves, nor murderers.”
“But thee would serve with me, friend,” rejoined David quietly. “Thee has men’s lives against thy account.”
“Else had mine been against their account.”
“Was it not so with Mahommed? If so, according to the custom of the land, then Mahommed is as immune as thou art.”
“Saadat, like thee I am a Christian, yet am I also Oriental, and what is crime with one race is none with another. At the Palace two days past thou saidst thou hadst never killed a man; and I know that thy religion condemns killing even in war. Yet in Egypt thou wilt kill, or thou shalt thyself be killed, and thy aims will come to naught. When, as thou wouldst say, thou hast sinned, hast taken a man’s life, then thou wilt understand. Thou wilt keep this fellow Mahommed, then?”
“I understand, and I will keep him.”
“Surely thy heart is large and thy mind great. It moveth above small things. Thou dost not seek riches here?”
“I have enough; my wants are few.”
“There is no precedent for one in office to withhold his hand from profit and backsheesh.”
“Shall we not try to make a precedent?”