"Well, sir, I think you get there under one hundred bound, and once you got the gold you not care a dam' what it coss comin' back."
"No," said the Frank firmly. "I want to know the expenses there and back, and I can't afford more than fifty pounds for the whole expedition."
At this unlooked-for ultimatum Elias opened his eyes very wide and sucked his pencil, staring ruefully at his scattered testimonials. He declared it to be "no go."
But Iskender, seeing the opportunity for self-assertion, stood by the Frank, undertaking recklessly to arrange the whole expedition, on a smaller scale, for the sum stipulated.
Elias shrugged to the ears.
"Be careful to keep this secret," he said sullenly in Arabic. "By Allah, if the others, who dislike thee already, get to know of it, they will go mad with rage and probably take thy life. Abdullah, thy uncle, himself would wish to slay thee. For a missionary or a resident in the country, and out of season, it might pass. But this is a lord of wealth, a prince, the best sort of traveller!"
"Canst thou not perceive, O my dear, that the desire of his Honour is for rough adventure, and not luxury? And verily, to travel in the style of thy proposal would simply be to invite every bravo of the wilds to come and rob us."
This Iskender uttered in a tone of high impatience, and he was pleased to observe, out of the corners of his eyes, that his patron approved of that tone being used towards one who had designed to overcharge him.
"Well, Allah reward thee; for thou canst make no profit on it, that is certain," said Elias with another shrug, and after that kept silence for some minutes, resigning all part in the discussion. But soon, as that discussion grew more animated, and the vision of the sea of gold came dazzlingly before his eyes, he forgot his dudgeon and chimed in once more, thus tacitly accepting the leadership of Iskender, who was satisfied.
"When shall we start?" asked the Emîr at last.