He carried his stool into the inner gloom, and Hassan followed him. They conversed apart until the coffee was served, when they brought back their stools into the light of the doorway. Hassan reappeared frowning, but the countenance of the young caïd beamed, as before, of an imperturbable good humor.
Abd-ur-Rahman stayed but to swallow a cupful of coffee; then rose, smiling on the company, and took leave. The two soldiers followed him with the demeanor of whipped curs. They went forward to offer him assistance at mounting his horse, and he availed himself of their obsequiousness, still smiling.
“Ma sh’ Allah,” muttered Hassan, as he watched them depart. “To reflect that it is but a youth, one whom yesterday I held upon my knee. By the Lord of Heaven and Earth, he is a devil!... That is not the son of the Sheykh Shems-ud-dìn! It is the son of Milhem Pasha, Eblìs in person——!”
As they sauntered forth in search of the sheykh, he continued:
“May it please you, he forbids us to touch a rifle. He says that he will apply to the authorities on our behalf for a special grant. The praise to Allah! We shall wait a hundred years and see never a cartridge! Our need is instant, and if we get not the things, others less worthy will presently obtain them. I know these outlying garrisons. At Istanbûl or Edreyneh it may be different. But for Esh-Shâm, El Cûds, Haleb, there is one way in all of them.”
He ceased not to growl in soliloquy.
They had entered a narrow alley of the Muslim quarter, strolling as their manner was, when there came a sound of feet hurrying after, and a ragged soldier overtook them, sweating and out of breath.
“Say, is not one among you the excellent Hassan Agha, whom Allah preserve?”
“I am he.”
The man louted. “A word from the Bimbashi Muhammed—he that had charge of the armory (Allah witness how I ran to overtake thee, questioning all men as I ran; for I had but a hint of thy likeness and the number of thy companions from him who sent me)—a word from the Bimbashi Muhammed which he whispered to me in the castle yard as he went to durance: ‘Attempt nothing, for the love of Allah! Lay aside thy purpose. For things are not as of wont.’”